Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Don't Be Anxious!

The robins have returned to our area. As I observe them in our yard, I think of this little poem I've read often through the years.

Overheard in an Orchard
Said the robin to the sparrow,
“I should really like to know,
Why these anxious human beings
Rush about and worry so.”
Said the sparrow to the robin,
“Friend, I think that it must be,
That they have no Heavenly Father,
Such as cares for you and me.”
~Elizabeth Cheney, 1859



Note: The sparrow was wrong. We do have a Heavenly Father who cares for us. It’s just that we don’t often realize we do! Neither do we pay attention to these words spoken by Jesus said in Matthew 6:25-34, ESV, emphasis added:
25Therefore 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. Are you not of more value than they? 27And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 

28And why are you anxious about clothing? 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?’ 32 For the Gentiles [unbelievers] 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.


34Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow…

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