Lunch

“Look 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?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”  (Matthew 6:26-27).

Christ in the Wilderness - The Eagles (Stanley Spencer)

When I was a little girl, I can remember my mother asking us what we would like to eat for lunch.

My mother is an excellent cook and cooks very often – three or four times each day.  She has never complained about the task of cooking, and will always manage to rustle something up in a hurry when people around her are feeling a little peckish.  However, the one thing that my mother finds quite challenging about all that cooking, is having to decide what to make.

After all, it is quite a challenge to have all the groceries in stock and all the food prepared and all the utensils cleaned and ready and also have everything ready for everyone.  If the meal is a lunch and the person eating it is going to need to eat it at school or at work during the day, then there needs to be a container to place the food into and the food needs to be prepared in a way that allows the person eating it to eat it in a safe manner.

In other words, from the time when I was a very very young child, there was a whole series of logistical exercises required to ensure that I had food in my lunchbox and that the food was wholesome and edible and that I would enjoy eating it and find it delicious.  And as a young child I never once wondered about how the food got into my lunch or who organised the shopping or groceries.  I never once wondered about how we would get the food or keep it edible.  Instead, I just opened my lunchbox and took out the food and ate it.

And I have been thinking about this as I have been thinking about the birds…

“Look 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?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?”  (Matthew 6:26-27).

For Christ explained this exact same phenomenon twenty centuries ago, but instead of talking about lunch, He spoke about birds…

And just as my Earthly mother made sure that I had food in my lunchbox and would not go hungry at school, so too does my Eternal Father ensure that I have Grace in my soul – in other words, He ensures that my soul is fed.

And just as worry will do nothing to help the birds, neither will it help me.  And I have been thinking about that today, because it seems to me that God is asking me to remain a child for Him.  Because as a child, I really do have nothing to fear…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.