Ladies, how often have you looked at a closetful of clothes and said, “I have nothing to wear”? I have said it more times than I can count — and anyone who has helped me move knows I have plenty to wear.

As women we know that when we say “I have nothing to wear,” we mean “I have nothing I FEEL LIKE WEARING.” If men understood this, it would nip many a marital quarrel in the bud.

But even if men understood that “nothing to wear” means “nothing I feel like wearing,” few men realize that very often behind that statement is a cry that has pierced every woman’s heart since Eve realized she had nothing to wear.

Eve’s realization came the moment she and her husband did the deed that “Brought death into the world, and all our woe,” as Milton puts it. Ever since, the cry that at one point or another has pierced every woman’s heart is this: “I don’t feel beautiful.”

Matthew 6:28 has the answer not only for those times when we have nothing to wear but also for when we don’t feel beautiful.

When Jesus says, “Why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,” He is saying more than “Do not worry about what you will wear.” He is giving us a key to spiritual growth. The clue is in what He says a few verses later: “Your heavenly Father knows you need these things” (Matthew 6:32).

Spiritual growth comes not by toiling and spinning and other forms of fleshly striving. It comes by being secure in the knowledge that we have a Father in heaven who loves us and is taking care of us. In other words, spiritual growth comes by faith and is an evidence of faith.

(c) 2019 by Sharon Arpana Edwards. All Rights Reserved.