Jesus was in Kpar Nahum and continued to speak with people in the crowd that was assembling about him in the shade of the trees. “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet our Heavenly Father feeds them. Are we not much more valuable than they? Can any one of us by worrying add a single hour to our lives? Since none of us can do this little thing that is so easy for our Heavenly Father, what good does it do to worry about anything simpler than that?” The growing crowd listened intently with some looks of skepticism sprinkled throughout.
“Let’s take clothing for example. See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe every single one of us? When it comes to food, it’s even simpler: plants and animals live and grow, and we can take them into our bodies to live. When it comes to water, we may collect rain water or drink from a stream or lake. So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ Let those those who run away from Heaven run after all of these things. Seek first your Father’s Heavenly Reign, and all these things will be given as well.
“Our Father desires to bless us with purses that will not wear out and that are filled to overflowing with heavenly treasure that will never fail. When you receive your new purse filled with incorruptible treasure, no thief will be able to touch it. Your wealth will not tarnish nor diminish. What you receive from Heaven is yours to keep. The tax collectors can’t touch it. No moth will be able to chew through the fabric of your purse, for your Father will make it indestructible. Your soul is the purse made to hold the Father’s priceless treasure.”
A man from the crowd said to Jesus, “How do we seek this Heavenly Reign when we’re being crushed? How can we get our hands on this treasure that never fails? What good’s an empty purse that lasts forever? The Kingdom of Caesar has taken what little treasure we had.” Some members of the crowd murmured among themselves.
Jesus looked at the man with a twinkle in his eye, “The rulers of this world take what they want by force. But those who seek to do The Father’s will must ask for these blessings through humble, heartfelt prayer. And what you receive in response cannot be taken from you because no one can put their hands on it. It cannot be seen with the eyes. It can only be felt within the heart.”
“But what if The Father doesn’t want to bless me?” muttered someone in the crowd.
Jesus’s eyes look took on a softer, almost saddened look. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are not as compassionate as your Heavenly Father, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven pour his Love into the hearts of those who ask in prayer?
“So I say to you with all of the authority that the Father has given to me: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Each and every one who asks from the heart will receive. The one who desperately seeks the Father’s Love will find it. The door of the Father’s compassionate heart is always unlatched. The Father’s heart will open wide at your lightest touch. The more important question is, how open is your heart to receive what the Father desires to give to you?
“Your Heavenly Father will not deny you the deepest desire of your heart. He loves you more than you know. And what does the heart desire above all? It desires the Father’s Love. You may think that it desires clothing or food. These are important and the Father desires to bless you with these things as well, but the greatest blessing that the Father waits with eager anticipation to bless each and every one of you with is his Love.
“The Creator of our souls is our Heavenly Parent. We are each heirs of the Father’s Heavenly Kingdom. Unlike earthly heirs, we do not have to wait for our Heavenly Parent to die to receive our inheritance. No! The Father is eternal and abundant Life, and gives his Love freely to those who ask in prayer. Your Heavenly Parent has more than enough Love for every single precious and beloved child who asks. Each and every one of us are joint-heirs of a Heavenly Kingdom of Love without borders or limits.”
Secrets of the Story
This story is a patchwork of adapted scriptures from the New International Version of the Holy Bible (Matthew 6:25-24, Luke 12:22-24, and Luke 11:9-13) with some imagined conversation woven in.
I have written this story to share my current understanding of Jesus’s teaching regarding God’s Unconditional Love for us and our ability to receive that Love through heartfelt prayer. We are precious and beloved children of our Heavenly Parent. And our Heavenly Parent longs to fill our souls with Love so that we might receive everything we need to live well.
There is a toxic and pernicious lie that has sickened the mind and weakened the heart of humanity for millennia. It is the lie that we cannot trust our Heavenly Parent to meet all of our needs. We fight among ourselves for worthless scraps and settle for so little, because we are unaware that our Heavenly Parent is the Creator and Ruler of the Cosmos, making us royal heirs who were born to inherit vast spiritual riches that will help us to receive the material blessings that we need as well.
Just as those of royal birth can fail to exercise their royal claims, so do most of us fail to exercise our claim to our Heavenly Parent’s Royal Riches. We are Children of Heaven. Heaven was never meant to be a place that is only experienced after we die. The world we have been gifted will only join the heavenly realms when we decide to embody the Love of our Heavenly Parent. And there is only one way for us to receive God’s Love so that we may embody it in this world – the way of soulful prayer.
We cannot pray for God’s Love too much. We are so in need of God’s Unconditional Love. Our world is so in need of souls who freely give of themselves according to the Unconditional Love that they have received. Let us open our hearts in prayer to God’s unlimited riches of Divine Love right here, right now, and forever more. The One who made our precious souls is more than ready to fill us with Heavenly Treasure whenever we are ready to receive it.
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New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.