Beautiful Necessities
Worry takes all the colour out of life. Jesus was teaching His disciples why worry is totally inappropriate in His Kingdom - because God will provide all that is needed to keep His creation going each day (Psalm 104:10-28). And those gifts are not just functional, they are also beautiful. By using the flowers as an analogy of clothing, Jesus stretched the trainee apostles to think beyond the basic clothing requirements of modesty and warmth - to beauty, splendour and glory.
God does provide gloriously (Isaiah 12:5)! His provision is far greater than ‘adequate’ or ‘average’ (Luke 6:38). Because God's nature is set in glory, all that He does is glorious and reflects the multi-faceted beauty of His character. We should not be surprised that the natural world is stunningly beautiful at both macro and micro levels, because it is God's handiwork (Isaiah 6:3). If God works like that in the inanimate physical world which cannot intelligently praise Him, how much more will He delight in providing for His children in lovely, wonderful, attractive, beautiful and delightful ways which will excite our minds, emotions and spirits to praise Him (Ephesians 1:12).
God is not grey! As pure white light is refracted into a rainbow of colours by a prism, so everything God does for us has His mark of beauty; and clothing the flowers is just one example. Some may say, ‘What's the point; why does God bother to decorate His gifts?’ It is simply in His nature. He wants to draw our attention to His glory and delight us with His provision each day. The glorious splendour of heaven is described in picture language where even the foundations are precious stones (Revelation 21:19-21), the light emanates directly from God’s glory and from Jesus (Revelation 21:22-24).
Of course, those who live in the monotone world of worry will not notice, or they might even complain that others find Him more attractive than they do. But those whose faith has grasped that God is love will also grasp that God is beautiful light ... and in Him is no greyness at all. The Lord Jesus Christ is described as being the clearly seen radiance of all that God is and does (Hebrews 1:3). As you look for the Lord's divine artistry in every provision, praise will transform your outlook in every circumstance (Psalm 150:6); and others around you will have a reason to be drawn to your Saviour.