But How Can We Not Worry? Instead, Look Big.

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life...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 clothed (arrayed) like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field...will he not much more clothe you...?"  Matthew 6:25ff

These words of Jesus' have been both confounding and powerfully hopeful to me-  and I would guess to you, also-  for a long time.  How can we not worry about our life?  Our neighbors in Wadena, MN, are worried that a good share of their population will not return to town after a tornado last week.  The Gulf of Mexico oil spill just goes on and on, tens of thousands of barrels of crude oil a day pouring out of the gulf floor into that important ecosystem, with not much resolution in sight.  Our global economy is in deep hurt.  And here at home, so many are out of work, hurting badly.

My parents always taught me to "look big."  That doesn't mean what it sounds, though.  They didn't teach me to look macho or tough (that wouldn't work for me anyway!), but to look wider than the worry, to look at but also beyond the hurt, within but also beyond the trouble.  They taught me to look at life in hope, with faith in the leading of God in the midst of the daily living of life.

As hard as that may be, I believe this is Jesus' revelation of God in this passage and in the Scriptures.  He tells us that God is always at work "clothing us" with Him.  In the most difficult struggles of life, God is upon us, within us, within the flow of the day.  God's power is the power of His care of His whole creation and His calling of all people to be part of the healing of it.

God is about healing.  This is the grace of salvation in the Bible as much as any of our other images of what it means to be saved.  Healing is as much salvation in the present as we see God calling us to take part in ministering to others and being part of a healing, hopeful presence in their lives as it is a sure and certain hope of God's full healing of us and His creation eternally.

Today, how are you the voice and image of hope and healing in your sphere of influence?  By embodying hope and faith in God, you help draw others out of despair and into, in a sense, salvation and new life in real time.  Does your faith and ability to "look big" spring from the overwhelming, overriding love of God for this world, for you and all people?  Will you be a visionary today of hope-filled and faith-filled engagement in healing ways of living?  Do not worry about this life, Jesus said.  He reveals to us again the way of God.  It is grace.  Peace to you today, in Jesus, our loving and good God.