A Sacramental World

 Behold the lilies of the field...if that is how God clothes the grass of the field which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith! (Luke 12 and Matthew 6).

Can you imagine Jesus walking through the fields, lifting up his eyes toward the mountains, seeing the trees and the birds of the air -- and seeing everything in the world proclaiming the loving care of His Father in heaven?    How much more will he clothe you, O you of little faith!

Jesus forever refers to His Father as the God Who Acts in our lives, down to the smallest detail of every day.  He taught us to pray for our "daily" bread -- for the little things upon which we depend for daily life.  Elisabeth Elliot calls this our Declaration of Dependence on God:  "...to Him nothing is trivial or unimportant...He will not have us imagining that material things are in themselves unworthy....He made us human.  He made us to need what he gives. He tells us to ask for it" (God's Guidance: A Slow and Certain Light, p. 24).

Once we begin to see, through the action of the Holy Spirit in our lives, the graciousness of God toward us in the small things, we can begin to relax and smile -- our lives do not depend on our worry and anxious care.  It feels good not to be the "adult" here -- to rather live as a child:  whoever does not enter the kingdom of God as a child will not enter it at all (Mark 10).  Our adult lives are full of concern and responsibility and worry about tomorrow.  But that is not really how Jesus asks us to live, is it?  Seek first the kingdom of God, and these things will be added unto you.

Two nights ago, I promised a young lady that I would find a copy of God Calling for her.  Someone had been telling her about how much this small book had meant to her and how much it had changed her life when she started reading it every day.   I know the book well; it had ministered to me in the same way about 40 years ago, and I had started buying 5 to 7 copies at a time to give away.  Recently, however, I had stopped doing that.  My promise to her meant that I would have to make a special trip to Gulfport this week to find another copy for her, which of course I was happy to do.  

Yesterday, however, I stopped at the house of a friend to drop off an article I thought she might want to read.  "Oh," she said, "I have been cleaning out my nightstand, and I found an extra copy of God Calling you gave me.  I didn't realize that you had given me two copies over the years."  I started laughing.  Anyone else would call this a coincidence.  I don't!  At this exact moment in time, my friend discovers an extra copy of God Calling and saves me an extra trip to Gulfport?  When I gave her that extra copy all those years ago, God knew I would need that book this week.  And He kept it in storage until the exact moment I needed it.  

How can I worry about tomorrow, about food shortages in our country, about angry mobs attacking our nation, about people on facebook attacking one another, about our "cancel culture"? ---- all frightening in themselves and worthy of the attention of serious citizens, but not worthy of daily fear and anxiety on our part?

Our very world is sacramental, if we know how to see.  It tells us of a God of beauty, of love, and of  provision for the smallest detail.  Jesus saw the Father at work in every moment, and He invites us to walk with Him for a while so that He can point out to us what He sees.  How much fun might that be? It might actually feel like being a kid again!