Was worry waiting by the window at the start of this new day?

We know its silly to give worry the time of day when we serve so great a God as we do. Day by day possibilities of beauty and gift wait to bloom as he unfolds his sovereign presence and care.

But sheepishly we sometimes count concerns through watches of the night, recounting minute details of distress under grey skies where we could instead focus on brilliant blossoms of opportunity waiting for the dawn.  Perhaps we fail to see the pods of hope God’s faithfulness is growing through the nighttime of our fear, noting only the darkness of shadows encroaching on the light and missing the multitude of flowering grace where fuchsia lilies will awake to display new presentations of his sustaining love and leading.

Which is catching our attention?

Daylilies come in many different combinations of colour and form, each amazing bloom not lasting more than twenty-four hours.  They generally open in the early morning and wither during the night, often replaced by another intricately robed flower on the same stalk to lift up praise from day to day as the torch of vibrant hope is passed from one to the other. With a gentle shifting of colour as one falls and another arises, a lily bed moves through its season with surprising freshness unconcerned that the glory of yesterday is now rearranged.  Dead heading flowers of glory from former times keeps us watching for the current movement of the head designer in our lives with a lovely anticipation that we will see his handiwork in our lives yet again, a lasting promise of his glorious ability to provide.

Should we see these shifts as willy nilly random change instead of being under the watchful care of a loving Father, we tend to worry when we can not hold the past in lasting shows of that which first caught our eye as life-giving and helped develop our spiritual growth, or strengthened our service in the beauty of Christ, or gave us new freedom to shine in release from personal limitations and wounds.  It can be hard to let go of things within and around us which have served to shape personal and communal life for good in a certain day but are no longer effective and even distract us from moving through the season we are in to follow our true Head, not letting our heads be turned by dismal worry that our problems are ever too great for him to make a show of his new life and love in this rhythm of life and death we often resist.

Perhaps a wilting courage to trust that our needs of nurture or future security will be met as they have been in the past causes us to hold tightly to the forms of security which once caused our hearts to fill with praise but now raises concerns unforeseen.  Worry slips in when these things have drooped and dropped their lustre before the dawn of fresh blossoms have been revealed in morning light.

We watch then for the Morning Star to be the signal of our only hope that his love will faithfully creep into the window of our souls dispelling fear and highlighting a whole range of colour beyond what we have known and owned as being what we need.  Though blossoms come and go, he is more than enough to hold our attention in wonder if we choose to be aware of his emerging mercies, new every morning, touching our physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual needs.

“And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?  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 seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.  Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.  Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”  (Matthew 6: 27-29, 33-34)

On backroads and in private gardens, in city squares and parklike paradises, daylilies lift their daily blooms even where no one sees.  Overnight as one fades away with the gentle rise of moonlight, another wakes to greet the morning sun with praise and poised elegance befitting the greeting of royalty.  There is no loud fanfare to announce the intricate beauty unique to each one, yet their quiet loyal pleasure to behold the glory of the King and bring him joy is found in their deep trust to gladly give themselves away knowing that again tomorrow, their designer will provide fresh vestments of provision fashioned for each particular need.

So why worry … are we not more important to him than these?

“Lord, the lilt of worship creased with deep dues of gratitude and trust dispels the worry that today will somehow not be full of grace to face whatever looms beyond the windows we deem closed to hope.   Help us cope with fuming factions, booming blasts of unbending rhetoric, or gloomy plumes of pending sorrow consuming our joy by living as perennial blooms which receive and display your unending kindness in the uniqueness of each one.  

May the stalks of our surrender to your love be preserved to produce flowers of faith saturated with the colours of your blessings for each day.  Cut off dead worry at the head of its source to let the newness of your daily promises thrive in the beauty of Christ in us, the hope of glory.  Amen.”