What Birds and Flowers Have to Do with Chronic Pain and Illness

Chronic pain and illness have a way of shrinking one’s world. The intensity and duration of such a struggle squeeze out even simple pleasures that might otherwise have been delightful and joy-giving. All that can be acknowledged and paid attention to is the pain. We simply don’t have the capacity to look beyond. It’s the equivalent of walking in the dark and only being able to see six inches in front of your face.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus speaks to the cares and concerns that we have in this world (Matt. 6:26-30). He says:

26 “Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? 28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you.”

What is Jesus doing here? Clearly, he is attempting to assuage the human tendency in all ages to resort to anxiety. He is making overtures of his Father’s love. He is also weaving in some logic (e.g., “Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?”). But how does he do this? Telling his audience bluntly not to worry because “God is good” was not his approach. Instead, he beckons them to risk looking beyond themselves for just a moment. True beliefs and true statements needed to be fed with sensory input that captured their imaginations. So he says, “Look at the birds.” When you are anxious or hurting, digesting a systematic theology textbook may be too much. Not that the textbook isn’t good. It just may not be the most fitting tool for the need of the moment. But looking at birds? We can do that.

And because two examples are better than one, Jesus then says, “Look at the lilies.” Consider their beauty. Consider how God cares for them. It’s as if Jesus recognizes that we aren’t brains on a stick, meant only to digest informational factoids. The world around us speaks to the faithfulness of God, if only we have the wherewithal to look, taste, touch, hear, and smell.

So, what do Jesus’s words have to do with chronic pain and illness? Birds and flowers represent a way of tangibly reminding ourselves that God is good. To say it more accurately, they represent a way of being reminded that God is good. When our world is shrunk by suffering, to have to remind myself of something seems like another wearisome task. But if I can just look around for two seconds, the reminding may happen to me, spontaneously and naturally. Suddenly, I might be able to see a foot ahead in the darkness, not just six inches.

When suffering of various sorts threatens to choke out our lives, seek sensory-based distractions. These leverage the reality of our embodied existence, surrounded by material goodness and beauty. If you are able, go for a walk. Notice the sound of the birds around you and the green foliage of the trees’ leaves. If you can’t walk, settle for sitting on the porch at night. Close your eyes. Do you hear any crickets chirping? Open your eyes. Do you see any stars twinkling in the sky? The British pastor Charles Spurgeon once said, “In the expanse above us God flies, as it were, his starry flag to show that the King is home.” My encouragement: let’s purposefully notice a bird or a flower today (or something that stands in for natural beauty), and pray that God would use it to enlarge our world just a bit in the midst of pain.

This post is the eighth in a series deriving from the “Chronic Pain & Illness” seminar that took place at Rocky Creek in September 2025. If you’d like to receive the PDF note packet and audio version of that seminar, you may email allen@rockycreek.church.