Worry

Blessings to my spouse who left this morning and said these words to me..."Have a great day free from worry in the shadow of the Lord." Ahhhh. How I need those words because, well, I worry. Especially now, in these times, I worry.
Jesus devotes time to worry in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6. I think it funny that the Son of God would devote time to such a trivial thing. He is Lord above all and yet He knew that we, as humans would spend time worrying. Turning our brows together and wringing our hands over tomorrow.

Matthew 6:27 - "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?"

Indeed. The hours we have now are so precious in watching children grow, flowers bloom, deadlines loom, accomplishments come and gone. And also so tedious. Another day, another hour of the same old thing. But with things today as they are, isn't it tempting to worry? To fret about what tomorrow will bring? What kind of security do we have in this world when we can't even be sure of what the future holds? Much less, our place and significance in it?
He answers that, too, in the verse before adding an hour to your life.

Matthew 6:25- "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 important than food, and the body more important than clothes? 26Look 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?"

It is more than I can grasp to think that I am much more valuable to an Almighty God than a bird. When I look outside and see the hundreds of birds He created, and an almost infinite array of colors and shapes and sizes of them, I wonder how He can have time for me. In my normalcy, in my ordinary-ness, why would the God of the Universe spend time for me? Care for me more than the birds of the field?

The Bible has an answer for that, too!!!

Zephaniah, one of the minor prophets, talks in his book about the final day of Judgement of the Lord. Good to know that he knew what we all know also. The good guys win.

On that day, the day of Judgment, the day He comes again in Glory...

Zephaniah 3:16- "On that day they will say to Jerusalem, "Do not fear, O Zion; do not let your hands hang limp.
17 The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."

How like a mother or Father, singing over their child. Wow. The God of the Universe will delight in ME, when I am worried - as I seem to be a lot lately- He will quiet me with his love...He will put his hand upon my brow that is furrowed with worry, take in his hands mine that are busy with nervousness, and he will quiet me. My breaths that came quick and shallow will still, my heart that is racing will slow, and the God of all creation will rejoice over me with singing.....

Truly that can only happen By His Grace.