look at the birds of the air ...

This weekend Emma, Jeremy, Jacob, Bob and I went to the Butterfly Place in Westford. You can spend some marvelous time just being with the butterflies, watching them, and letting them be what they are -- amazing creations that give us nothing but pleasure and live off nectar from the flowers. The kids enjoyed the butterflies and I had a ball watching the kids and photographing these neat fluttering flashes of color.

When we returned home on Sunday, the news was waiting for us. Employment is down, terrible violence in New York, a missile launch in North Korea and an earthquake in Italy. You could forget how much of the world is right if you listen to the news too often!

Then I uploaded the pictures and remembered the butterflies. As I thought about just how lovely they are, I remembered the words of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount (the 6th chapter of Matthew's Gospel) ... He said "Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you ..." (verses 26 -30)

These butterflies don't have bank accounts; they don't have 401k's; they don't have a thought beyond the next flower and yet they fly in beauty. Jesus challenges us to see the pattern of the Father's extravagance and to trust Him with our needs, our fears and our futures. He draws our mind's eye to the beauty of a world that God said was "good." (Genesis 1) and tells us to trust the God who makes beautiful butterflies as an expression of His glory. If He cares that much about butterflies, why do we need to worry? As the old song says ... His eye is on the sparrow, and I know He watches me ...



Keep the faith!