Fun fact: there are 9,956 species of birds.
Why should you care?
Because there’s a bird for that.
Park out with me in Matthew 6 for a second and check out verses 25-34. My Bible’s subheading says “The Cure for Anxiety.”
I worry. Literally all the time. About everything. I’ve blogged about my struggle to fully surrender things over to God all the time, so this may not be news to some of you. I’ve also blogged about my anxiety and panic disorder, so that may not be news to some of you. But to everyone who falls into any of those categories or somewhere in between, I want to share with you something my sweet mentor and friend Kim shared with me a while ago. Whenever I would tell Kim I was worried or anxious about something, she’d look at me and softly say, “There’s a bird for that.”
Here’s what she meant.
Verse 25 starts off with Jesus telling us not to worry about our lives, about what we eat, drink, or wear. He poses the question, “isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothing?” Verse 26 is where the bird thing comes in. He says, “Look at the birds of the sky: They don’t sow or reap or gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth more than they? Can any of you add a single cubit to his height by worrying?” (A cubit is just a unit of measurement, I had to look that one up a while ago). But y’all- I LOVE THIS. DON’T MISS THIS! Jesus is telling us that the Lord provides for us no matter what. The Lord provides for all 9,965 species of birds and says that we’re worth more than them. That’s a huge number. For every worry of yours, there’s a bird for that that the Lord can take care of. Worrying about it really won’t do us any good.
Maybe birds aren’t your thing. I get that. If you’re more of a flowers person, God’s still got you covered.
Fun fact: there are 400,000 species of flowers.
Verse 28 picks up with this truth: “And why do you worry about clothes? Learn how the wildflowers of the field grow: they don’t labor or spin thread. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was adorned like one of these! If that’s how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, won’t He do much more for you—you of little faith?” Y’all. Not even a king- a KING – was that beautifully adorned. And you know what happened to all that stuff? It was burned. I love what it says about the Lord doing much more for us because it is so true. Scripture goes on to tell us to stop worrying about all of these things, because our heavenly Father knows that we need them.
Verse 33 says “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be provided for you”. Instead of worrying about the things of the world, we need to focus on seeking the righteousness of the Father.
I know that not worrying is so much easier said than done. But we so often walk through things alone when we don’t have to. When we bring our worries, fear, and anxieties to the Lord, He reminds that He takes care of everything, the same way He takes care of all 9,956 species of birds and 400,000 species of flowers.
I want to leave you with one last verse. Verse 34 says, “Therefore don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
Take it one day at a time. Try your best to focus on what’s in front of you. Just put one foot in front of the other.
Don’t worry. God’s got this.
