Do Not Worry
Look at the Birds — Your Father Feeds Them
Matthew 6:25–34Jesus is sitting on a hillside with a crowd of people gathered around Him. Some are farmers. Some are fishermen. Some are mothers holding babies. All of them know what it feels like to worry — worry about food, worry about clothes, worry about tomorrow. And Jesus looks at them with love and begins to speak.
'Do not worry about your life,' He says, 'what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?' (Matthew 6:25).
Then Jesus points up at the sky. Birds are wheeling and dipping through the blue air above them — sparrows, perhaps, or the ravens that nest in the rocky hills nearby. 'Look at the birds of the air,' Jesus says. 'They do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?' (Matthew 6:26).
The people look up. The birds are not planting seeds this morning. They are not storing grain. And yet every single one of them is alive and fed. Someone is taking care of them — and that Someone is God, their heavenly Father.
Jesus keeps going. He asks them to think about the wildflowers scattered across the hillside — the bright lilies that bloom and then are gone. God dresses each one more beautifully than the richest king who ever lived. 'If that is how God clothes the grass of the field,' Jesus says, 'will He not much more clothe you — you of little faith?' (Matthew 6:30).
That word — faith — is important. Faith means trusting that God is who He says He is and that He will do what He has promised. The people listening to Jesus have heard the old stories. They know God made a covenant — a deep, unbreakable promise — with His people long ago. He promised to be their God and to care for them. And God has never once broken a promise.
But Jesus is not just reminding them of old promises. He IS the promise, standing right in front of them. He is the Son of God, who has come down into the world to make sure every last covenant promise gets kept — forever.
'Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,' Jesus tells them, 'and all these things will be added unto you' (Matthew 6:33).
Do not chase after food and clothes as if God has forgotten you. Chase after God Himself. He sees every sparrow. He clothes every flower. And He sees you — completely, perfectly, always.
Christ in This Story
Jesus is not simply giving advice about worry — He is revealing Himself as the One through whom all of God's covenant promises find their 'yes.' Because Jesus perfectly trusted His Father, even through suffering and death, He secured for us the right to call God 'our heavenly Father' and to rest in His care. The birds and flowers point to a Creator who provides, but Jesus — the eternal Son — is the ultimate proof that God will withhold no good thing from His children (Romans 8:32).
Historical Context
In first-century Galilee, economic anxiety was real and constant. Most families were subsistence farmers or day laborers who lived with very little margin — a bad harvest or a broken tool could mean genuine hunger. Roman taxation made things harder still. When Jesus pointed to birds and wildflowers, He was not speaking to comfortable people with full pantries; He was speaking to people for whom tomorrow's bread was genuinely uncertain. His words would have landed with striking force.
The 'lilies of the field' Jesus mentions (Matthew 6:28) may refer to any of the bright wildflowers — anemones, poppies, or crown daisies — that carpet the hills of Galilee each spring in vivid color before the summer heat withers them. The comparison to 'Solomon in all his glory' would have resonated immediately, as Solomon was the legendary symbol of Israel's greatest wealth and splendor. Jesus is telling His audience that God's ordinary, everyday care for creation outshines even humanity's most spectacular achievements.
Let's Pray
Heavenly Father, thank You for feeding the birds and dressing the flowers — and for loving us even more than all of that. Help us to trust You when we feel worried, and remind us that Jesus has kept every promise You ever made. We want to seek Your kingdom first. Amen.