Lilies of the Field

“No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" Matthew 6:24-30

The sun is shining and much of the snow has melted. The air is not very warm and yet the daffodils have pushed their anxious heads through the hard earth anticipating spring bringing color to the world. Even with everything brown and gray they insist on being seen, insist on bringing color and promise to early March, insist on reminding us of the greatness of the Creator. Life, which seemed dead or suspended, was resting only, getting ready to bloom again. And these daffodils, the precursors to summer's lilies, trumpet in their small but mighty way of love that is and is coming again.

Jesus tells his disciples and those who will listen that we cannot serve God and money. If money defines us and bind us, we are his. And if we let God define us then we are God's. If we are willing to embrace the signs of life and potential, even in the darkest days, then we are God's, especially when we know in our hearts that God's love is unquenchable and we are precious in God's sight. Too often, when spills and shortfalls happen, we blame God or scapegoat an easy target, rather than seeing the growth and transformation, the new life, being offered.

Today, I want, with each breath I take, to know myself as belonging to God. I ask God to release me from worry and to help me put all my energy into trust and praise. The sun is shining and God is blessings us even we refuse to or cannot see the blessing. May we all work to be God's today, so that the world might know the incarnate love, the indwelling presence of Christ who sets us free.