I have told you many times about my dogs. Now that all my children are grown and I am almost housebound, they have come to be like my children (don't worry Cesar, they are still dogs). Just like Cesar Millan says, I am learning a lot from my dogs. Today I have learned about burdens.
As I have told you before, my yellow lab has this "stick", at least that is what she thinks it is. It is about 6 feet long and a good 3 inches in diameter. To me, that qualifies as a log, but she seems insistent on playing fetch with her "stick". She can't even lift it unless she picks it up right in the middle. I have spent day after day watching her drag that stick around the hillside trying to carry it around. It is in fact funny to watch her try to carry that stick that is way too big for her to carry. Yet, she thinks she can handle it all alone.
Today my family is burdened. We have suffered a loss and it is painful to the very depths of our collective soul. It is at present a burden.
I have tried, just like my dog and her log, many time to carry my own burdens. I pull and tug and wear myself out, trying to handle the pain all by myself. For some reason, I seem to think I need to give God the day off and can handle this all by myself. Some days I will give the burden to God and then ashamed that I can't "handle it myself", I pick it back up and carry it a while longer. Today I couldn't do that, the burden was too heavy, too painful.
So as soon as I heard about our loss, I cried as the shock turned to acceptance, and then I went straight to God for comfort and help. The first verse He took me to was Matthew 11:28, "Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." It has only been a matter of hours since I was notified and already I feel weary from the burden continually pressing down on my very soul. I qualify for that one.
The next place God lead me to was Matthew 5:4, "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." I know I need that. I need God to pick us up into His lap, wrap his loving arms around us, hugging us tightly, drying our tears, and saying, "There, there My children. you will probably never understand why this happened, but rest assured that I know why, I am still in control, and it will be all right."
Isn't God's Word wonderful? John 16: 20b states, "you will grieve, but your grief will be turned into joy." He is telling me that the heartache and grief I feel will not last forever, like it feels right now, but will someday end and He will return my joy. What a tremendous promise of hope for us, that this too shall end.
While not a day goes by that I am not grateful for the loving care of my Heavenly Father, today I am more deeply grateful than I have been in a long time. Grateful for not only His words of promise to me, but also the close relationship that we have cultivated over the years. I Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxieties on Him for He cares for you." Today, I am working on casting all my cares on Him because without Him, I couldn't make it through.
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