Several years ago, Anna Quinlen, a columnist at Newsweek . . .

Several years ago, Anna Quinlen, a columnist at Newsweek, wrote a wonderful book entitled A Short Guide to a Happy Life.  In the book, Quinlen reflects upon an event that forever changed her life—her mother dying of ovarian cancer at the age of forty, when Quinlen was just nineteen.  That experience, painful as it was, taught Quinlen just how precious life is, and how none of us is guaranteed any more than the moment we have before us right now.  As she explains, “It was the dividing line between seeing the world in black and white, and in Technicolor.  The lights suddenly came on for the darkest possible reason, and I learned something enduring about life, in a very short period of time.  And that was that it was glorious, and that you had no business ever taking it for granted.”

Wise words, to be sure—because let’s face it; it is so easy to move through our days as if we had been promised an endless supply of them.  It is so easy, as we frantically rush from point A to point B, to miss the simple pleasures that God has prepared for us—or worse yet, assume that they will always be there.

It is ironic—some might even say, tragic—that we forget so often how wonderful life really is.  True, we all have things that we could (and do) grumble about; but my hunch is that we have far more things for which the only appropriate response is gratitude.  The fact that you woke up this morning, for example, or have a warm, comfortable place to lay your head tonight—those are not rights, they are gifts!

In the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus discusses the issue of worrying, he invites us to look at the birds and consider the lilies of the field.  To be honest, it took me some time to figure out what he actually meant by that.  I kept wanting to point out, “Well, of course, the birds don’t worry.  What on earth would birds be worried about?  They don’t pay mortgages on their nests, or have to put braces on the beaks of their teenagers.”

But maybe we should take Jesus at his word.  Notice that he is not suggesting that we envy the birds for their worry-free existence.  He is not asking us to give up our humanity and trade places with them.  He is simply asking us to slow down long enough to look at them every once in a while.  Look at the birds.  Consider the lilies.  Appreciate the beauty and grandeur of the Creation that surrounds us; and ask yourself if any portion of this magnificent life was earned, or even deserved.  If we did that more often and more regularly, my guess is that, suddenly, everything we are so stressed out over and worried about would be put into proper perspective!