Do not worry...

I love the words of Jesus...you know, the ones written in red.

At the end of Jesus' teaching on worry in Matthew 6, He closes it with this profound yet simple thought..."Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." (Matt. 6: 34)

Last week I talked to a friend of mine who, like me, has a propensity towards advanced planning and worry. She was doing an "exercise" in her mind about how the events of the coming week would pan out, and suddenly found herself all knotted up inside. By the time we started talking, she was already in tears.

Consider the lillies...

Isn't that a beautiful picture for the mind? "They do not labor or spin" Jesus said. And yet, why do we seem to think that we have it all under control? Is there so much of a tendency in the human heart to see the temporal that we forget the bigger picture?

Trusting God is hard stuff for the human mind and heart to wrap itself around. There is no reason not to trust, other than our lack of faith in the Father and His ability to make "everything beautiful in its own time". (Ecc. 3:11) And that very verse goes on to tell the reason why we have a problem: "He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end."

We cannot fathom it...because we are not God. And so we want what we want when we want it, forgetting that God sees the bigger picture for the plans He has.

From time to time, we need to be reminded of this, especially when the crunch is on and the vice grips of life begin to ratchet themselves tighter around our heart.

So, if you are in a situation where you are worried, try to remember the words of that song we all learned as kids...

He's got the whole world in His hands...

He's got you and me, brother...sister...

He's got the wind and the rain...

After all...consider the lillies...

...and trust the Gardener.