Daily Lesson for May 22, 2014

Today's Daily Lesson is from Matthew chapter 6:

25 “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? 26 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? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 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?"

I read these words from Jesus to my daughter and in her seven-year-old naïveté she takes it all at face value.  In fact, she takes everything Jesus says at face value.  "God feeds the birds. And look how pretty the flowers are - God clothed them.  Don't worry; the LORD will provide."

 But she doesn't pay the bills.  With enough work, I still actually might be able to convince her money grows on trees.  She sees how the birds of the air are fed and the flowers of the field are clothed, but it hasn't dawned on her just how short the lifespan of a bird or the season of a flower really is.  I read to her Jesus' words and in my anxious and somewhat cynical adult mind I think (though I don't have the heart to say), "Yes, sweetie, look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field; but don't look too long - for they won't last long."

But then it dawned on me the other day - that's just Jesus' point.  The lives of the birds of the air and the flowers of the field are but a hair's breadth in length.  And yet, they make the most of the time they have. The birds set off in flight, dancing left and right, swooping down towards the earth, ascending towards heaven.  And the flowers dance in the field, blazing with a purple, even a king with all his money cannot afford.  The birds soar.  The flowers dazzle.  They live!

"You must become like a child again," Jesus said.  In other words, I must learn to think like my daughter once more - open to hear Jesus' words at face value and to look with open and wondrous eyes to the birds of the air and to the flowers of the field in order to learn how to live.

The Mind of the Child: "Look at the birds and the flowers - how God provides for them."

The Mind of the Adult: "Birds fall.  Flowers fade.  It doesn't last long."

The Mind of the Adult Born Again as a Child: "Yes, birds fall.  Flowers fade.  And it doesn't last long - But they sure seem to enjoy it while it lasts."