Look. Consider. Attend. Pay attention.
Observe.
The birds of the air.
The lilies of the field.
The grass arrayed in glory.
Watch carefully, then look closer.
What we find is a world, a creation, a whole universe that God cares for in every intricate and intimate detail.
Sometimes it might seem otherwise.
Sometimes all we can see is death and suffering and hunger and fear.
Sometimes we are lost in a sea of anxiety, nothing on the horizon but approaching overwhelming destruction, loss and grief.
Especially then, especially then, we are to look, consider, attend, pay attention, observe, the birds of the air, the lilies of the field, the grass arrayed in glory.
Watch carefully, and then look closer, until we see the evidence of God’s commitment and love for his creation. The evidence is everywhere. That is our beginning assumption, our leap of faith that God is involved and that the evidence is there for those who attend and pay attention.
So stop worrying so much. Stop being so anxious. Remember the hope we carry that God is involved, that God cares.
Don’t be like the foolish and the ignorant, the uninformed, the immature who are only concerned with getting and consuming, hoarding and keeping, acquiring and displaying.
They are boring diminished creatures who can only talk about what to buy next.
Don’t be like those sad beings.
Be God’s children together, strive to know what that means and we will find so much more to talk about, to do and to see. Food and clothing are fine, but there is so much more, don’t give them so much attention and miss out on everything else.
We are clothed in Christ, we walk around blazing like the sun, watch for this, study this, consider, look.
You are the evidence that God cares, that God is involved.
You are made to fly and to soar.
You are made to be arrayed in glory.
Be amazed by each other and find God.
And be stubborn about this, especially when everything seems to say that God is absent, that God does not care, that God is not involved.
Especially then we are called to attend and to be the evidence that God is present, that God cares, that God will see us through beyond the cross to the splendor of the resurrection.
Consider, look, then look even closer.