Cares

Give all of your worries and your cares to God, for He cares about you. 1 Peter 5:7

Earlier this morning I was running on the trails with my dog Scout. The wind was blowing gently, and the rain had not yet started. The last of the autumn leaves were coaxed from their moorings and were cast about and listing lazily towards the earth. I was struck with the thought of the wind as an analogy of how God moves, works, how He carries and cleanses. I couldn't see the wind. But everywhere I looked this morning, I could see it's touch. I could FEEL the wind buffeting me as I ran, I could feel it's fingers chilling the tops of my ears.

One yellow maple leaf, in particular, caught my eye. It was virtually alone on it's tree. The wind was playing with it, and for a moment, I thought the leaf would hold on fiercely. But then, as if with a sigh of relief, it quit the tree, rose up, twirling, and wafted over the trees on the other side of the trail, gone in a blaze of golden joy.

I wonder if that's how I hold on to my worries. They're all I know. If I release my cares, can I honestly trust that God will take care of them, of me? But if I can, with the help of God's gentle prompting, let go...suddenly I realize that God doesn't lift my cares and worries away...He lifts ME! When I let go of the anchor of life's burdens, God lifts me, God carries me, God helps me to see that the adventure He calls me on is the adventure of joyful flight.

As I watched the leaf disappear, I felt my heart release just a bit of my burden.
And there was God.
Caring.
And Carrying.