“Casting all your care upon Him, for He careth for you.” 1 Peter 5:7

The Lord urges us to cast our care, and anxiety UPON HIM, because He loves us and does not want us to be burdened down by them, and I know we mean to and often quote that Scripture to ourselves because today’s world is brimming with bad news on television, in the newspapers, on social media, in our daily conversations, and in the “fiery trials” that we face at times.  And FEAR (the opposite of faith) worms its way into our minds and hearts despite our strong denials and our profession of His peace as our comfort.  We must ask ourselves if we really cast our care upon Him… like the young shepherd boy David did when he slew the giant, Goliath, for he did not trust in his own strength but instead depended wholly upon God for everything and in everything.  It was a lesson that David learned early on in his life, and it served him well many, many times thereafter.

I remember when our 18 year old grandson, Dace, was about six years old, he was invited by the parents of his best friend to go on an outing to Houston to visit NASA, something he had wanted to do for a long time .  The date was set for the trip, but as the day inched closer, Dace became very apprehensive about spending the whole day there, and he worried that it might be very late at night before they would return.  The truth was and still is that he is a homebody, and he never has liked being away from home for long periods of time.  He rarely ever spends the night with his friends; instead, the guys always come to his house to spend the night because HE WANTS TO BE AT HOME.  Going back to this particular story, our grandson backed out of going to Houston even though he really wanted to go.  The thought of being away from home was a bit much, so the trip to NASA  was shelved.
Then just a couple of days before the event, he came in from school and announced to my wife that he had thought of a way that he could go on the NASA trip after all.  He explained, “I will just ask Jay to go with us, and that way I will not be homesick.”  Jay is my son and Dace’s uncle, and I will tell you that he has been an exceptional and wonderful uncle/dad/best friend to this child his whole life.  My wife tried to explain that Jay might not be free on the big day as he could be scheduled to work, but Dace was sure that his uncle would go.  Loving his uncle as much as he does, he did not even consider the possibility of his not going to Houston with him.  As it turned out, Dace was right. His uncle did go with him, and he provided the “comfort” that Dace needed to go and have a good time.
In a sense, my grandson cast his cares upon his uncle in this instance, and in doing that, he believed that all would be well with them on the trip because he trusted his uncle to fulfill his every need.  Faith conquered the fear that he had struggled with because Dace reached out and took his comfort (named Jay) with him.  And in these unsettling times today, we seasoned Christians can encourage ourselves by reaching out to our Comfort, no matter the situation, because He is our refuge, and we already know His goodness, His righteousness, His Love, and His faithfulness.                                 Like Dace, all we have to do is to take the One we trust with us wherever we go.
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