And He said to His disciples, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.

“Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor born; and God fees them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature? If you then are not able to do the least, why are you anxious for the rest?

“Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither till nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

“If the God so clothes the grass, which today is in the field and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will He clothe  you, O you of little faith?

Luke 12, 22-34   1st Century

 

This has always been one of my most favorite passages in the Bible perhaps because it relays the message I need to hear most. It is the message of trust.

Years ago I used to say to myself that this was a very pretty, but rather unrealistic, picture of life. It would be wonderful to have no worries about money or clothes or rent or jobs – but a person can’t really expect God to do everything! He had whole galaxies to look after, the fallen sparrow in Crete is too unimportant. And, how could anyone really ‘not worry’; wasn’t that really irresponsible.

The truth was that I could not imagine having that much trust in anyone or anything, including God, to look out for me. I couldn’t risk giving up that much control over my life and my future.

But little by little life and God wore me down until one day I realized that I had no real control over anything – not the health of my body, the state of my mind, the length of my life. I found out the little dictator in my head was just a little scared version of who I thought I was.

And little by little I opened my heart, unclenched my fists, got on my knees and asked to have the faith of the lily. Since then He has never denied me, never betrayed me, never forgotten me, and little by little all my needs are taken care of.