Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Being in the Flow-ers - Part 4: The Lilies of the Field

There is a passage in the Bible that has been a source of contemplation and inspiration for me for years. I am reminded of that now as I have been writing about my experience at the greenhouse. It is a passage that has stayed with me since I was a child going to Sunday School and then when I worked as a lay assistant minister at the United Church of Canada. In this passage, Jesus has just given his famous teachings from The Sermon on the Mount. He speaks about anger, greed, love and anxiety. This is the passage I love:

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? 26Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them…27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, 29yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30But 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? 31Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34“Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself...”

 

-- English Standard Version, Matthew 6, vs 25-34

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