When I was in grade school, my mom and I would take a periodic trip to the Eastside Joann Fabrics. There, I would pick out a handful of patterns I liked. There was a cool black-and-white-and-red patterned one (go Scarlets), a few striped ones in sports team colors I liked at the time, and the one I vividly remember: a bright yellow fabric with palm trees and cartoon suns wearing sunglasses. I loved that one!

My mom would take this fabric home and make me clothes—mostly shorts in the summer. An active and growing boy like me went through clothes quickly, so a stockpile of shorts was a good thing. It was reassuring to know that if I tore, ripped, stained, or ruined a pair of shorts for any reason during my summer activities, Mom could whip up another.

In Matthew 6:28-30, Jesus uses a clothing analogy to illustrate a truth and core characteristic of our Heavenly Father. While he is delivering this section of the Sermon on the Mount, I imagine he’s surrounded by all kinds of flowers. He even says, “Look at the lilies of the field,” which in my mind, he is pointing to the beauty all around him. “They don’t work or make their clothing.” The people hearing his voice could see the flowers and had an up close and personal look at this sermon illustration.

This passage and the verses before are all about worry. Jesus wants us to trust that God will take care of the necessities of life. Maybe for those hearing it firsthand in Jesus’ time, these things we might see as trivial were major problems for them. But the principle is the same for us today: Following Jesus and living in the kingdom of God is about putting our full and complete trust in the God who cares for us.

I think of 1 Peter 5:7, where it says to cast all our worries on God because he cares for us. We can trust God with ALL our worries. From the small and mundane to the major worries we face. How much more does he care for us than the birds and flowers? So much more!

I think I’m going to have my mom make me a pair of shorts with birds and flowers on them as a reminder.

Reflection:

  • What is something you are having a hard time trusting God to provide for you?
  • How has God shown his faithfulness to you when you needed him?
  • Take a moment to pray a simple prayer telling God you want to trust him and ask him for the faith to do so.