Thanksgiving

Jesus Looks at the Beauty of Wildflowers

Luke 12: 27

Matthew 6: 24 - 34

The lilies of the field are the wildflowers we see every spring - the wildflowers of the Bible were probably anemones.

People who toil are men who work with their hands, doing physical labor. People who spin are the women who make linen or wool fibers into thread for weaving into cloth.

1. What does Jesus tell us about worrying?

[Jesus tells us not to worry about eating, drinking or having nice clothes.]

How do the birds live?

[The birds neither plant nor harvest.]

3. Who is better dressed than the richest kings?

[The wildflowers are dressed better than the richest kings.]

4. Whose work should we always put first?

[We should always put God's work first.]

These flowers are shaped on the eight-fold: one fold on the horizontal and on the vertical, and two folds on the diagonals.

Tissue paper works best. Use eight sheets of any color. You can use all one color, or shade or interlayer (pink to red, yellow to orange, for example). More than eight sheets becomes too thick to cut after the paper is folded, but eight sheets give a very rich, full flower.

Any size works well. The basic size is an eight-inch square, but these flowers are so full that they work very well on the largest square you can cut from precut tissue (18 or 20 inches).

For each flower, cut eight squares of tissue paper and stack. Fold the stack once on the horizontal, once on the vertical, and once on each diagonal. Bring the opposite folds to meet in the middle. (This is the difficult part and may require recreasing.)

Using florist's wire stems, staple (two or three times) a folded or looped end of the wire stem in the center of the folds at the tip. Wrap with florist's green tape (from a florist or the 99-cent store) until the base of the flower, the staples, and the top of the stem are covered.

Cut a curve at the top of the flower.

For very small children, I do all the preparation up to this point.

Let the children unfold the flowers slowly, petal by petal.

These flowers make a wonderful bulletin board for Consider the Lilies of the Field.

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