Tuesday, April 8

Wildflowers Don’t Fuss

Michael Andres

Reading

Has anyone by fussing in front of the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? All this time and money wasted on fashion—do you think it makes that much difference? Instead of looking at the fashions, walk out into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They never primp or shop, but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them.
Matthew 6:27–29 (The Message)

Reflection

When the BBC released Planet Earth in 2006, it stunned audiences with surreal detail, impossible cinematography, and wry, confidently British narration. The scientists, photographers, poets, financiers, and craftspeople who pioneered its sweeping scope left an indelible mark on how we encounter the natural world in a digital age.

I remember house-sitting—fresh out of college, living at home, picking up side hustles to pay off student loans and fund my breakfast taco habit—for a family who owned the full 10-disc set. (Remember the days of physical media?) I binged the series on their big-screen TV, utterly captivated. It reshaped how I saw the world—beautiful and brutal, gentle and majestic, full of infinite forms and tender wildness. A gift.

I’ve long found comfort in relating to God as Creator. There’s something reassuring in knowing I am the product of both microscopic intentionality and divine playfulness—cosmic dust and a familiar breath. To be named and known by the One who has named and known every sunrise and every sunset, and all the life and death that unfolds between them, is a kind of deep settling.

When I’m at my best—healthy, rested, at peace—I trust Jesus’ words and the Spirit’s presence without forcing it. There’s no fight. No striving. No performance. Just a quiet being. Like the wildflowers.

But on the many days I’m not at my best, I get jealous of them. I lose perspective. I start clutching for control—of people, outcomes, schedules, perceptions. I complain about drinking Diet Coke when there’s no Coke Zero, instead of simply receiving the day under God’s sky as a gift. I feel like I have to earn grace that’s already been given. I forget.

Here’s the thing though: wildflowers don’t fuss.

And I’m enough.
So are you.

What’s something you and I can do today to live like wildflowers?

PRAYER:
God of all Creation,
Breathe peace and assurance into my life.
I am yours, you are mine—
Thank you.
Amen.