My mother used to make our clothes.
Looking back, I now appreciate how Proverbs 31 industrious she was at the time, but the snickers and hazing at school are still reminders of what this verse seeks to expose. Those were hard times for our family, and, fortunately, many years before social media. Shamefully, those memories drove me through my teen years and into early adult life, trying to fit in externally. It’s quite funny to look back now at the pegged jeans and tie-dyed shirts that came along the way, but the story is fitting to share for this devotion today and a good reminder for you to look back through your own old photos for a laugh.
Matthew 6:28-30 (ESV)
*”And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?”*¹
A second passage and a second illustration for us to consider, the lilies and wildflowers of the spring. This passage gives us another anchoring reminder of the care and generosity of our heavenly Father.
Garments in ancient times carried far more meaning than our double-stuffed walk-in closets do today. The cloak a peasant wore was also the cloak he slept under at night. Clothing represented wealth, status, identity, and protection from the elements. Under Mosaic law in Exodus 22:26-27, a creditor who held a poor man’s cloak as a pledge was required to return it before sundown so the man would have bedding for the night. We can hardly go camping today without a carload of accessories, sleeping bags, air mattresses, and blankets.
This was not just a problem then, and our modern application is closer to the original setting than most readers may see at first glance. Social media’s curated portrayal of beauty and fashion has only sharpened anxiety’s hold. The way we fashion ourselves in pursuit of perfection has consequences far deeper than the dollars we spend chasing it. The CDC reports that U.S. youth suicide rates rose 52% between 2000 and 2021, paralleling the rise of the platforms that taught a generation to chase the wrong glory.²
We have become a performative, outward-facing culture, and it should come as no surprise that anxiety has followed.
Look at the simple cure Jesus offers. The word consider in verse 28 comes from the Greek katamathete, a compound of kata (down, or intensifier) and manthano (to learn).³ The verb means to study thoroughly, to consider carefully, to learn well by sustained attention. In Part 1, we were told to look at the birds. Here we are told to consider the lily. The discipline is sharper, and the observation is longer. The cure for anxiety begins with attention, and Jesus has just given us one simple focal point: the roadside flowers.
The visual is quite profound. Even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. The fact is, Solomon was the most arrayed king in Israel’s history. His drinking vessels were gold because silver was as nothing in his court. His shields were beaten gold, and his throne was ivory overlaid with gold. When the Queen of Sheba traveled from the south to see his glory, the text in 1 Kings 10 records that there was “no more breath in her”. Breathtaking abundance and beauty on display. Jesus took the absolute superlative of human arraying and said a wildflower exceeds it. The lily on the hillside outside the disciples’ homes was more gloriously clothed than the most arrayed king in their history.
In contrast, the anxious man falsely elevates the fake while forgetting the providence of His Father. He is anxious about an appearance Solomon already exceeded in his own day, an appearance the lily already exceeds without any effort at all, and an appearance the Father is preparing to exceed forever in glory we have not yet imagined.
The practical cure begins with remembering what God has already arrayed without anyone’s help. If you go back to the very beginning of time and immediately following the fall, Genesis 3:21 (ESV) tells us
*”And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.”*⁴
They recognized their need, and so did the Father.
He has been clothing his people from the first day they needed clothing. A mighty bit comforting to see, the hand that sewed skins for Adam in the garden is the same hand that provided pegged jeans for a self-conscious teenager and tie-dyed shirts for a young man trying to fit in. The hand that arrays every lily in every field on the way to your office is the same hand that has been arraying his children all along, even when they were too anxious to notice. The simplest wildflower you walk past today does not toil and does not spin.
Jesus closes the comparison with the diagnostic. “O you of little faith”. Charles Spurgeon, preaching on this exact verse, refused to soften it:
*”Little faith is not a little fault; for it greatly wrongs the Lord, and sadly grieves the fretful mind. To think the Lord who clothes lilies will leave his own children naked is shameful. O little faith, learn better manners!”*⁵
A bright reminder and diagnostic of our every anxious thought.
The Challenge
Maybe you’ve been concerned about how you fit in, your stature, your hair or lack of, your less-than-straight smile, or clothing not as fashionable as the world may say is new. Whatever plagues your mind, bring it under this text and remember, your heavenly Father looks not on the outward appearance but on your soul. He made you perfectly in His image and cares for you more than can ever be fully known. Even more than the lilies that adorn the roadside.
For Reflection
What part of your appearance, image, or social presentation has been quietly carrying your sense of self this week?
When did you last actually stop and consider a wildflower for two minutes, as Jesus commanded?
Stay on Mission
Footnotes
¹ The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2001), Matthew 6:28-30.
² Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, WISQARS Leading Causes of Death Reports, suicide rates for ages 10-24, 2000-2021 data. Available at cdc.gov/injury/wisqars.
³ Strong’s G2648, katamathete. The verb appears only once in the Greek New Testament, here in Matthew 6:28.
Leave a Reply