The Lilies of the Field

It's New Year's Day. All the glitzy party lights have been packed. All the champagne has been drunk. All the delectable desserts and amazing appetizers have been devoured. All the family and friends have gone back home. All the pretty dresses have been hung back up.

Now it's quiet and peaceful or maybe even frantic and chaotic life once more. So what from here? What will this new year bring? Joy? Trials? Newness? Comfort? Hardship? Love? Healing?

Honestly, facing a new year can be rather scary. We have parties and celebrations to remember the beautiful and good things of the past year. We tend to avoid talking about the year to come. The unknown makes us worrisome. But how thrilling is it to think of how we will grow, mature, and learn with the new year God has given. Therefore, I hope we can find peace and rest on this day.

"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? 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? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 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? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble." Matthew 6:25-34