The Story

Let us imagine a little picture. A mother is showing her little boy a flower and helping him to see how beautiful it is. Who makes the flowers? The Lord, and He makes them more beautiful than anything that any man or woman can make. What wonderful colors they have! What sweetness! They are so delicate and sparkling with beauty. The Lord said to the disciples, "Consider the lilies, how they grow." He meant all the bright flowers, which are plenty on the hills and in the meadows of the Holy Land. They do not spin and weave to make their clothes. The Heavenly Father makes them beautiful and takes care of them. If He takes such care of the flowers, so small and living but a very little while, how much more will He take care of people, His own dear children. The little plants are not anxious. They are busy growing and making flowers and fruits and some of them laying up food in stems and roots for next year. They are busy, but they are not anxious. And so we should be.

And the birds. The Lord said, "Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap." The ravens are blackbirds with harsh voices and not much beauty, yet the Lord cares for them and gives them food. The Lord also tells us to notice the little sparrows. (Verses 6 and 7 of this chapter.) They are so little, yet the Heavenly Father takes care of them. The little birds are busy, especially when they are building their nests and feeding the young birds, but they are not anxious, and we ought not to be. We can learn about the Lord and love Him, and ought to be more trustful than the birds and flowers.

A great deal of the worry and the trouble of the world is about money and the clothes and food and other things that are bought with money. And many quarrels between brothers and friends are about these things; each one is afraid that another is getting a larger share. It seems sometimes as if we should be happy if we had a fine house and plenty of money to buy what we liked. But it is not so; much money, a big house and every comfort do not make a happy home, nor make life worth living, but a loving contented spirit. (Psalm 37:16; Proverbs 15:16, 17) There may be real happiness in a large or a small house, with many things or few things; it is wherever the loving, contented spirit is. He is really rich who is contented with what he has. The Lord taught this lesson on the journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. A man asked Him to speak to his brother to divide the inheritance with him. Getting the money or not getting it was not important in the Lord's sight; a contented spirit was the needful thing; with this he would be happy. (Verses 13-15)

There is another reason why the contented, trustful spirit is better than money or anything that money will buy. How long can we keep the natural good things? At the longest, while we live in this world. And how long is that? Perhaps a few years, perhaps a few days, a very short time. (Psalm 49:17) But nothing can rob us of our thoughts and feelings. The contented spirit is a part of ourselves; it goes with us into heaven and is ours forever. The Lord taught this lesson in the parable of the man who tried to keep his goods by building larger barns. (Verses 16-21)

The words, "Take no thought," mean, take no anxious thought, be not anxious. It is not wrong to think what we should do tomorrow or the next day. It is right to lay in provisions for the winter and to save money for something which we know we shall need; but we should not be anxious about these things as if everything depended on ourselves, for the Lord is taking care of us; He expects us to use the hands and the brains and all the faculties that He has given us, and He takes care of the rest. We may be sure that He will bring to pass what is really best for us. We should feel safe in the Lord's care, as a little child feels safe who has hold of a father's hand.

The Lord tells us to consider the ravens and the lilies. The birds are not idle; they are busy all day building their nests and finding food for themselves and the hungry little birds, but they are not anxious. The plants are busy too gathering food and preparing it with their roots and leaves and making flowers and fruits. Plants store up food and make ready their buds in the autumn for the next spring; but they are not anxious. The Lord takes care of them, and forms and colors them more beautifully than any man could do. They sparkle with a living beauty from within. Even the little shrubs and grass, which in Palestine were cut and dried and burned in the ovens to heat them for baking, are bright with wonderful beauty. When we see how the Lord remembers every blade of grass and every leaf and every little flower in the farthest corner in the woods, we should feel sure that He remembers us and cares for every least thing of our lives. He tells us that He does. (Verses 22-34)

The Lord tells us to be ready and watching, like men that wait for their lord when he will return from the wedding. He comes to call each one of us to the other world. We do not know when it will be. He comes to some as little children, to some as young men and women, and to some in old age. We should be always ready for His coming. We need not be anxious about it; we do not need to be always thinking about going to the other world; but we are ready if we trust the Lord and try to make good use of each day as it comes. If we live so, whenever the Lord comes it will be to take us to heaven, which is meant by the feast spread for the faithful servants. But if we are not making good use of the days, we are not ready. Then the Lord comes as a thief; for death takes away all the things of this world that we care for, and we have no heavenly good things in their place. (Verses 35-40; A. 9125)

1. What did the Lord teach us is worth more than money or anything that money will buy?

2. What things are left behind when we die? What things are taken with us to the heavenly home?

3. What kind of thought is it right to take about food and clothing? What kind is it wrong to take?

4. What lesson should we learn from the flowers?

5. How will the Lord come some day to each one of us? How may His coming be like the coming of a thief?

The whole chapter is given to help us to value rightly the things of natural and of spiritual life, and to trust the Lord in relation to them both. The Lord knows that we need food and clothing for our bodies, and He has a care for these. He cares still more for the needs of our spiritual life. His care for little thoughts of goodness in our minds is pictured in His feeding of the birds, and His care for little truths growing beautiful from Him is pictured in His giving beauty to the flowers. These are the Lord's care, while we live obediently and trustfully, sleeping and rising night and day. (A. 8478; E. 750)

Money and natural good things are left behind when we die. It is the same with knowledge if it is not made good use of; it goes from us when we die if not before. But money or learning that is used to do good is the means of developing a heavenly character; it is, as it were, transformed into heavenly treasure which endures forever. In heaven all good things are safe from natural moth and rust, and also from the moth and rust of selfish feelings and false thoughts, which in this world so persistently creep in whenever we are off our guard. (P. 217; A. 9331)

The mind has its birds and flowers. The birds are the affections for thinking of heavenly things. The black ravens mean such affections which are quite imperfect and ignorant; yet the Lord loves and cares for them. (Psalm 147:9; E. 650; A. 4967) The flowers are the growing intelligence and happy thoughts which the Lord makes beautiful beyond all human wisdom, even the wisdom of Solomon. (E. 507; A. 8480.)

The loins are girded when the affections are held firmly to their purpose; the lamps are burning when the thoughts are clear and bright. (E. 252)

Verses 35-40: to watch does not mean to be anxious about the time of death, nor to be always thinking about it. Watching means being awake to the spiritual use of our possessions and of all things of natural life. "What I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch." (Mark 13:33-37)

Coming in the second or third watch means at any time of life, we know not when. For a deeper thought see E. 532.

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