The Lilies of the Field

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. (Mt 6:28)

That is the Biblical version most of us will be familiar with. Here is the same passage in full in the KJV:

Matthew 6:27-29 (King James Version):
 27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
 28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
 29 And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

As per usual, the sayings are more "dressed up" and put in a context of a story in the canonical gospels. Logion 36 is the oldest known version of the statement. It is very basic:

Do not worry, from morning to night and from night until morning, about what you will wear. The lilies neither toil nor spin.

This is one of those statements which has immediate appeal, and which kind of stays with you. It obviously does not mean to just live it up and not worry about tomorrow. What it does mean is that on the spiritual path we need not worry about the outside appearances, giving us for inspiration the image of the lilies of the field in their natural beauty. Worrying, which we are inclined to do constantly, is the ego's favorite tool to counter the "Development of Trust" as the Course calls it, which is perhaps the central process in our learning to change our life in the direction of total reliance on our Internal Teacher. Here is a key section:

    This [trust] is the foundation on which their [the teachers' of God's] ability to fulfill their function rests. Perception is the result of learning. In fact, perception is learning, because cause and effect are never separated. The teachers of God have trust in the world, because they have learned it is not governed by the laws the world made up. It is governed by a power that is in them but not of them. It is this power that keeps all things safe. It is through this power that the teachers of God look on a forgiven world.
  When this power has once been experienced, it is impossible to trust one's own petty strength again. Who would attempt to fly with the tiny wings of a sparrow when the mighty power of an eagle has been given him? And who would place his faith in the shabby offerings of the ego when the gifts of God are laid before him? What is it that induces them to make the shift? (ACIM:M-4.I.1-2) 

When we learn to live from spirit we are aligning ourselves with the cause, for the world is just the stage, the projection screen where the play plays itself out, but the mind is the cause. Choosing the separation, we made ourselves into the center of a universe, and everything else became a sort of a remote threat over which we no longer have any control. When we reawaken to spirit, we are aligning ourselves with cause in the mind. So no longer would we waste our time rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, we would naturally also have the total trust, for we know that the things of the phenomenal world are only the out-picturing of a state of mind, and we can learn to change our state of mind. Hence, there is nothing left to worry about. Only in our separated state is there anything out there that could threaten us.

There are several other Logia which strike related themes. Logion 89 comes to mind - it deals with our focus on the outside (form) before the content. Also, Logion 97 pictures in a humorous way, how we will end up empty handed whenever we focus on the outside (form), and focus on preserving it, while losing the content, the meaning, the essence, the spirit. This is forever a fundamental signal of the ego, and the development of trust is about trusting the spirit first and knowing that the right forms will emerge.