In this blog, we'll learn how to live in the perfect and pure love of our Savior and accept Jesus invitation to be cared for and carefree. As you begin your journey today, take a moment to breathe slowly. With every breath in, receive God’s grace. With every breath you take, release your worries into his hands. He knows every desire beating in your heart. Feel free to open your hands in front of you and welcome God into this time. God’s hands and heart are already open to you. His face is turned to you with patient eyes and steadfast love. He is so glad to walk with you today.
Today, we join the crowds listening to Jesus in Matthew 6. They are distracted and restless. This crowd, like any crowd, is filled with people longing for security, for certainty, for something they can depend on. Their anxieties capture their thoughts and consume their attention. To them—and to us—Jesus offers an invitation. Pause, stop, and listen. Jesus says, "Do not worry about your life—what you will eat or drink—or about your body—what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow, reap, or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they are? Can any one of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your life? There’s nothing wrong with food and clothing. Our cares and concerns have their place. But Jesus knows we can let them consume us. Instead, he draws our attention to the birds. Look at them. Consider them. Contemplate them. Let them become our teachers. They chirp for our attention. Jesus says we can live as carefree as they do.
How can we live like the birds? What can they teach us? God cares for the birds. In the Old Testament, in Psalm 50, God himself says, I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. The birds show us—in fact, all creatures show us—God’s care is on dramatic display. “His eye is on the sparrow,” the old song goes, “so I know he watches me.” If God cares for such a small, insignificant creature as a sparrow, a tiny bird, how much more will he care for the crown of creation, the apple of his eye, and we humans who bear his image.
This truth is so important, Jesus repeats the idea again in Matthew, chapter 10. "Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Living like the birds has spiritual significance, Jesus says. Your worries don’t have to consume you. You can live carefree because God cares for you. The birds will teach us how.
Let’s close in prayer.
God, you love everything you have made. Every creature lives in your care. When the noise of anxiety clamors for my attention today, help me hear the song of the birds and choose to be carefree because you care for me. Amen.
May God’s Spirit guide your steps today.
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