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Daily devotional · October 13

Look at the Birds

“Therefore I tell you, 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 or reap or gather into 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? Consider how the lilies of the field grow: They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his glory was adorned 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 furnace, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles strive after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Today has enough trouble of its own.”
Matthew 6:25-34 (BSB)Read the whole chapter →

Jesus points at ordinary things: birds that do not farm and flowers that do not sew, yet are cared for. His argument is from the small to the great: if God tends these, will He not tend you? He is not telling people to be careless. Work still matters; He is naming worry as the thing that adds nothing to our days. Worry pulls us into a future that has not arrived and makes today smaller. His alternative is to seek God's kingdom first and to take one day at a time. Today, step outside for a few minutes and look closely at something living: a tree, a bird, a patch of sky. Let it remind you that you are seen. Then choose the single task that belongs to today, and leave tomorrow's tasks to tomorrow.

Prayer

Father, You care for the small things. Help me trust You with today and let go of tomorrow. Amen.

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