Therefore, 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 important than food and the body more important than clothes? 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? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'what shall we eat?' or 'what shall we drink?' or 'what shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own.
I suppose I always thought of this verse as a comfort for all types of worry. Vague worry that I said the wrong thing in a social setting or worry that I didn't do well at work or at school. But I'm reading this verse with fresh eyes and seeing that it's really about money. It applies to the other types of worry as well, of course, but it's telling me not to stress about money. This is the hardest thing. As I read it, it strikes me how flippant Jesus is being about money. Like he's saying something so obvious and it seems funny that he has to put it into such words... like he's explaining it to 1st graders or people who are very dense. "If God takes care of the birds and the grass what makes you think he won't take care of you? He knows you need those things, he's not so distant that he forgets you have to eat and wear clothes. He knows that every month you pay rent and the phone bill and your heavy student loans... why do you waste your time worrying about something over which you have very little control, but God has ultimate control?"
And it occurs to me that by worrying about money I am limiting the power of God. I am acknowledging my deepest fear that either God is not capable of working out this problem or that he doesn't care enough to help me with it. If you asked me outright whether I believed that God cared enough about me to provide for all my needs I would tell you without hesitation that I believe it to be true. If you asked me if I believed that God is capable of providing for all my needs I would also tell you that I believe that also to be true. So why is it hard to believe that he will and is taking care of these things that weigh me down? When the burden of student loans threatens to crush my spirit why do I not give them to God... why did I not give them to God in the first place?
And here's at the Performing Arts Center (which is spectacular by the way! We were sitting up in the nosebleed section so we had a lovely view of the architecture of the ceiling... lol!) 
And this last one is for Katie... as we both have the same picture in front of the same ice sculpture. :) We took this one the day after Valentines day when we went into St. Joe for the ice festival. 
