All I Have Needed

I just took a walk around my neighborhood and two features of the landscape proved themselves inescapable: the birds and the flowers. I think, for these reasons at least, Spring is a naturally uplifting time. Who can be sad in the midst of the effervescent chorus of birdsong? How can my eyes be downcast when the eruption of color illuminates what was weeks ago a barren brown canvas? The long, cold night of winter gives way to lengthening days and the hope of new life.

But even as the seasons change and hope is trumpeted from the trees, the steady drum beat of life rolls on. Spring is also tax season. As the pandemic gradually recedes, the common cold charges into the breach. While the world awakens to new life, death still leaves a bitter sting for all of us.

We live in this world of paradoxes that exist for all of us: life and death; hope and despair; love and fear; confidence and worry. In the wake of Easter and Resurrection, we boldly declare the Eternal “Now” of God’s Kingdom come. And yet, we also experience the bitter “Not Yet” of our present age – a time of waiting and hoping for the fullness of that Kingdom to be realized.

In such a place, it is natural to worry. It’s second nature to some of us. Anxiety, fear, worry, depression - these four horsemen of unrest stampede the plains of our mind. Legitimately, we have a great many things to worry about: food and clothing; social status and civil unrest; relationships and real estate. The list is as endless as our capacity to obsess over its contents.

One of the real gifts of living in God’s Kingdom is well summarized by Corrie Ten Boom, “There’s nothing too great for God’s power and nothing too small for God’s love.”

On what was perhaps a Spring day (pure conjecture on my part) in the Galilee, Jesus drew his listener’s attention to their surroundings. “Look at the birds,” he said. “Do they toil and labor and fret and fear over their next meal? Look at the flowers,” he continued. “Do they spin and worry and weep over their garments? No…they don’t. They live fully present, neither sorrowing over the past nor agonizing over the future. God’s hand will provide all they need.”

And so it is for all of us who live with God in His Kingdom. Whatever you need, God will provide. You do not need to carry the burden of making your life work the way you think it should. To paraphrase Jesus once more, “Do not be afraid little flock, it delights your Father to give you the Kingdom.”

Today, rest in the security and goodness of God’s Kingdom. In the words of the old hymn, “All I have needed thy hand has provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me.”

**This piece first appeared in the Print and Online editions of the Kingsport Times News on Sunday, April 18, 2021.