Luke 12:27

Then He gives a still more striking example from the flowers of the field. "Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin." God's care of the plant world, no less than the animal world, gives striking and familiar proofs that cannot be denied. The ravens might seem to do something; but as to the lilies, what can they do?… The one, therefore, the ravens, rebuked their care for their food, and the lilies their care for their clothing.

Here He points not to birds but to the flowers. So He does not speak of sowing or reaping or storing, but of toiling and spinning. God cares for the birds without the one, and for the lilies without the other. Were not His children far more to their heavenly Father than either?… This does not mean that sowing or reaping, toiling or spinning is never a duty. It may well be a duty, if they had to provide for themselves and their household, and could earn their supplies more easily by such work.

What a rebuke from the plants of the field, as our Lord explains it! Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these lilies. The closer you look at them, even with the most powerful instruments, the more completely they outshine the splendour of Israel's richest king. Yet that lavish beauty of form and colour was only a carpet spread for the feet of the poorest Israelite on one day, and on another was fuel for an oven… He uses the double fact to judge nature's anxiety about earthly things… He uses it to banish doubts and distress and unworthy desires, and to settle the heart in confidence of His Father's present, perfect, and loving care.

As to clothing, the Lord used the example of the lilies, created without the ability to work, yet clothed in beauty such as even Solomon with all his wealth was not able to match. Since God so lavishly gives such beauty to grass, though it exists so briefly, how much more can He be depended on to clothe those whom He has given His Son to redeem!

He never meant the disciples to make the birds of the sky or the lilies of the field the objects of their care, though not a few may misuse His words. Nor, in calling their attention to them, did He mean that they should treat them with scorn. They show His interest in all the works of God's hand and the creatures of His will. His aim is that the disciples should rise up to the Father above them all. He holds up the unmatched goodness of God toward what is so little in His eyes, so that they may be sure of the thoughtful and constant love He bears to His own.

Link this verse with the Song of Songs. Hear what the Bridegroom says of the earthly bride: "As the lily among thorns"… "so is my love among the daughters." There we have the teaching about the thorn — how it came in, and what its end will be. We were all thorns once. We can take these words for ourselves, and say that His grace has transformed us into the lily; arrayed in Christ, the believing soul has that fragrance and beauty before Him. God is the One who does this; it is not the result of their scheming and toil.