[Jesus said:] “Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds! …Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” (Luke 12:24, 27 ESV).

Consider the ravens. Consider the lilies. Ravens eat mice and road kill. Lilies are about as temporary as it gets. God didn’t come up with a plan of salvation to save the ravens or the lilies. But He did plan history to have His Son be born in human flesh and to die on the Cross for you.

Now consider this. How much is your earthly stuff worth compared to the heavenly treasure that God has for you? There’s no comparison! Jesus knows both how easily we get tangled up in the pursuit of earthly things and how utterly foolish it would be for us to let those things keep us from giving attention to our faith.

There is only one fear that Christians need to have: the fear of disowning Jesus. If you believe in Jesus, you need not fear losing anything else, because God loves you so much that He has in store for you a heavenly treasure that no thief can take and no moth can destroy.

--thoughts from next Sunday’s sermon, submitted by the Rev. Ken Johnson, Pastor of Zion and Our Savior’s Lutheran Churches of Avon and Springfield, South Dakota