Observing how God care for you

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s legendary detective Sherlock Holmes is one of the most intriguing creations of literary fiction. He is, quite simply, extraordinary. His famous cohort, Dr John Watson, is ordinary. Watson is often erroneously portrayed as a bumbling fool, but that flies in the face of Doyle’s attempt to make the average intelligent reader relate to Watson.




In this celebrated interchange between Holmes and Watson, see which character you more closely resemble:

Holmes: “You see, but you do not observe. The distinction is clear. For example, you have frequently seen the steps which lead up from the hall to this room.”
      Watson:      “Frequently.”
      Holmes:      “How often?”
      Watson:      “Well, some hundreds of times.”
      Holmes:      “Then how many are there?”
      Watson:      “How many? I don’t know.”
      Holmes:      “Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed”  (“A Scandal in Bohemia”  in The Complete Sherlock Holmes [New York: Doubleday, 1927]).



Most of us probably don’t know how many steps we regularly ascend each day and therefore relate to Watson. But here Holmes is making a point similar to the one Jesus makes in Matthew 6:25–34. There Jesus directly addresses the topic of worry, telling us what to do about it and why. Like Holmes, He says we need to take a good look around us and observe or think deeply about the meaning behind what we see. This is what Jesus tells us to ponder if we want to be free from worry:

For this reason, I say to you, do not be anxious for your life, as to what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; nor for your body, as to what you shall put on. Is not life more than food, and the body than clothing?


 
Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single cubit to his life’s span? And why are you anxious about clothing?
 
Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory did not clothe himself like one of these. But if God so arrays the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more do so for you, O men of little faith?
 
Do not be anxious then, saying, “What shall we eat?”  or “What shall we drink?”  or “With what shall we clothe ourselves?”  For all these things the Gentiles eagerly seek; for your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
 
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious for tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own (vv. 25–34, emphasis added).

The often-repeated phrase “Do not be anxious”  is the theme. The Lord is issuing a cease-and-desist order against anxiety based upon the sovereign care of a loving and omnipotent God.


Author: J.MacArthur.