One of my favorite places in the Smoky Mountains is the Tremont area. The road runs so close to the mountain stream that you can almost feel its spray. As you wind your way up the old logging road, the asphalt gives way to gravel, and the trees arch over you as a natural canopy. When you look forward, you are surrounded with beauty but can only see a short stretch in front of you. You have to wait to see what God has in store around the corner.
The last time I made the drive up the mountain side, I could not help but think about how often we find ourselves so anxious about what is around the corner in our lives that we miss the beauty of the moment. We worry so much about our tomorrows that we miss what God has for us in our today.
In The Lord’s Prayer, a part of what Jesus teaches his disciples to pray is, “give us this day our daily bread.” These can be difficult words to pray with meaning because we are tempted to want to know God’s plan for our long-term provision. Too often we long for not only enough for the day, but enough for a lifetime. Instead, Jesus invites us to pray enough for today alone. This requires us to trust God in this bend in the road. It also calls us to believe God will not only be present us in our todays, but will also be waiting for us and providing what is come for us around the corner.
Later in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6, Jesus teaches: “25Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, 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 clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?…34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”
While I appreciate those who have exotic birds and care for them as pets, the picture Jesus uses is the birds that live in the wild. Jesus assures us that if God cares and provides for these wild birds, how much more will God care and provide for us who are the very children of God through faith. We can trust God to provide our daily bread. We do not have to worry about what is around the next corner. So, enjoy the drive. Don’t worry about tomorrow. God is already there ahead of us.
Tom Ogburn
