seek ye first
Yesterday at the market beside my new flat (hehe I couldn’t resist taking my mom to check out the reno in progress! And it is looking so fabulous!!!!), I saw these chrysanthemums still wrapped in gauze and knew immediately they would be large but not crass in their beauty. Brown flowers! How cool is that! Look closely and you can see that the colours are actually composed from strands of yellow and orange and peach and burnt earth.
You know how there is that famous Bible verse where Jesus chides people for worrying. He points out that God made the wild lilies more beautiful than the most exquisite robe King Solomon would have, to illustrate that the provisions of a mighty God are immense and beyond our human comprehension and human effort. Well, I realised that the next verse, also a famous one but seldom linked, is perhaps the lesson for me.
In the past few days I was hearing this: If indeed the maker of so much beauty is your God, it is not just “do not worry” (hard enough as it is not to worry!) but also this subsequent instruction - “seek first the kingdom of God”, I interpret this very simply to mean pursue a life where you are living as a subject of God. Do not live as if there is no authority above you (hehe not just the law or the gahmen or your boss or parent), but a spiritual, deeply personal and pretty absolute authority. And be assured this authority is also love, is merciful and he made these incredibly stunning flowers. Be a subject. Submit. If you can so easily submit to beauty and love in your life, why can’t you submit to this God who is not only the epitome of beauty and love, he makes his presence known to you in nature, in people, in word, and in the circumstances of both the world and a person’s life.
Have you also experienced this? I have felt pursued by this God in the last few years, not in a bad way even if the awareness had often arose from painful experiences. This process of submission and pursuing him back is one I am still learning.
You know how there is that famous Bible verse where Jesus chides people for worrying. He points out that God made the wild lilies more beautiful than the most exquisite robe King Solomon would have, to illustrate that the provisions of a mighty God are immense and beyond our human comprehension and human effort. Well, I realised that the next verse, also a famous one but seldom linked, is perhaps the lesson for me.
In the past few days I was hearing this: If indeed the maker of so much beauty is your God, it is not just “do not worry” (hard enough as it is not to worry!) but also this subsequent instruction - “seek first the kingdom of God”, I interpret this very simply to mean pursue a life where you are living as a subject of God. Do not live as if there is no authority above you (hehe not just the law or the gahmen or your boss or parent), but a spiritual, deeply personal and pretty absolute authority. And be assured this authority is also love, is merciful and he made these incredibly stunning flowers. Be a subject. Submit. If you can so easily submit to beauty and love in your life, why can’t you submit to this God who is not only the epitome of beauty and love, he makes his presence known to you in nature, in people, in word, and in the circumstances of both the world and a person’s life.
Have you also experienced this? I have felt pursued by this God in the last few years, not in a bad way even if the awareness had often arose from painful experiences. This process of submission and pursuing him back is one I am still learning.
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