THIS week our thoughts have (briefly) turned to spring and the hope of warmer weather.
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Spring also brings the promise of new life. In the fields around the area there are lambs close to their mothers.
Many have planted seeds or are in the process of planting, bringing the promise of a productive vegetable garden or flowers which are planted in the hope they will bloom.
The bible often uses farming illustrations; this was the audience to whom would receive these words. When the bible talks about the harvest, it is really talking about provision.
It was custom to give 10 per cent of the first fruits of the harvest, or the best of the new stock to the temple to give thanks for what had been provided. Because they believed that is was God who had given them abundance through the harvest.
So often we gather stuff in order that we do not miss out or it makes us feel like we can provide for ourselves and family.
Sometimes we may give to charities or donations for a cause, or some may give an offering to a church, but it is often what is left over and not the first fruits of our labor.
Is it because we worry that there may not be enough to live in the pressures of today’s world?
Matthew 6:25-27 says: “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?”
These verses remind us that there is no need to worry because God will provide.
Just as he has done in creation, the birds and the flowers they rely on what is provided around them.
Just as the seeds lay dormant in the ground, just as the promise of the warmer weather is coming, you can trust in the provision of God.
Matthew 6:33 says: “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met to you.”