Bearing the Load
Last year we had the lovely pleasure of our grandson staying with us for six months. Lovely, but lively! One afternoon he went to sleep on my lap and when he woke up just over an hour later I discovered that my back had gone. Now he is not a particularly heavy lad, but I had been having some back ache leading up to this point and this cosy little time resulted in two weeks of either lying down or sitting on a hard chair.
Mulling on this incident I reflected on how often we carry burdens that damage our spiritual backs. Burdens like:
“How do I pay for our mortgage”?
“Can I afford the shopping this week”?
“What kind of world will I leave to my children”?
“How do I pay for mum’s care”?
“Will there be an NHS for me if I fall sick”?
“Am I alway going to be alone”?
People had similar anxieties in Jesus’s day. Many were poor and could just about keep a roof over their heads. Many others were landless labourers forced to roam the country looking for work. If they fell sick there were no doctors there to help. The religious leaders despised them and in effect excluded them. Jesus came into this world of pain offering healing, wholeness and the promise of a new relationship with God. One where God came into their lives offering forgiveness for wrongdoing, removal of guilt and a fresh new life with Him.
Jesus summed this up when he said, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). He continues to make that offer to the weary and burdened today. This is not a promise to remove all problems from life. It is, however, a promise from God to enter our lives and share our burdens. It is an offer to transform the way we live now and give us a fresh start as well as a fresh hope. It is an offer that I would highly recommend!
Jim