Rob Redden
“. . . even Solomon in all his glory was not as arrayed like one of these” (Matthew 6:9).
What do the lilies of the field have over the glory of Solomon? Certainly it isn’t the distinction between the beauty of nature and the product of human ingenuity, although that’s worth considering. The flower has glory naturally without any effort of its own. It’s glory is simply being what God meant it to be.
A Solomon may use his potential and gifts from God to promote his own pride and ambition. One scholar wrote concerning man: “. . . the more he becomes what he desires to be the less he resembles what God meant him to be.”
Solomon had glory for sure, but his glory came short of the glory revealed in a flower! Solomon’s glory, unlike the flower, was imperfect because, like the rest of us, he had a competing will that brought him lower than even the beasts of the field. But, unlike the flower, we have the capacity to choose to become what God wants us to be.
We are challenged every day to be what God wants us to be. God wants us to be what He created us to be, and that’s obedient children who trust in His guidance. Instead, we are often full of pride, and ambition, and seek our own glory rather than God’s.
As God’s children, we need to take in the glory of the flowers of the field, and realize that we must submit our will to His, and become more like Jesus.
We are given the resources for this aspiration. “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Groveland, FL