“ 34… ‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:24-34)”
This last part of chapter 6 in Matthew, from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount talks about worry, specifically about what we wear and how we look. It ends with the above summary statement. Don’t worry about tomorrow. Luke the Evangelist put it this way, “Remember the past, plan for the future, but live for today, because yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come.”
This verse challenges me. My doubts and my control issues confront me. My husband is in a nursing home with a terminal diagnosis and the potential situation I face everyday as I go to visit is often foreboding. It is easy to ponder what the terminal event will be and when. There is of course the question of paying bills. That does not include thoughts of keeping the family informed with their varying relationships with him, with us, with each other and with the grandkids. Yes, I worry.
This verse confronts my control issues. Tomorrow has not happened and I cannot control how this will all unfold. Likewise I cannot control how God will choose to show himself present. I forget to factor in the kind aides that happen to find my husband and care for him when he can’t care for himself. I forget the kind administrators who navigate finances with me. And I underestimate my family support. Oh yes, and I have friends loving me. God is active and present in so many ways that I often forget.
This verse confirms that yesterday’s mistakes are issues of forgiveness and that rests in God’s hands also. I must trust that others and God forgive me even as I forgive them when they are weak and perhaps wrong. Friendship is like that and I forget. Yesterday is in God’s hands too.
So as I sit with this verse today, I am reminded that yesterday’s issues have happened and can best be resolved by God’s guidelines and not by my guilt or wishes. Today is a gift that will unfold as God works with all the moving parts. Tomorrow is like a shadow of fears that may never materialize and blessings that I cannot anticipate or touch now.
I do not know what worries you but I do know there is a God who is faithful to walk through our past, present and future with us. Blessings.
On the Way to Wonder 