Black Holes

"Mommy!  I don't want to go into outer space. I'm too little, and they have big black holes that shrink you down."

The things that come out of a newly turned 4 year old's mouth.

This statement came at me completely out of the blue the other day.  Obviously it had been on his mind, and finally it worried him enough to leave his toys and come to tell me.  

I assured him that we were not going into outer space anytime soon and that it wasn't anything we needed to worry about today. In fact, it was not something he ever had to do if he didn't want to, but maybe when he was a big man, he would reconsider. 

Reassured,  he turned away to go play.  As I watched him go,  I thought (or more likely, God reminded me) of how often we are fearful of things that we haven't even been asked to face yet. 

Trust me, I know that life throws curve balls. I'm in the middle of an extremely curvy curve ball (or something, perhaps I should avoid sport metaphors) right now.  The funny/ironic thing is that of all the things I've worried about, this was never one of them!  

I joke that worrying must work, after all, if 95% of what we worry about never happens, it actually works very well!  But really, we have to realize that worrying eats away at us, distracts us from what we should be doing or what we would rather be doing, and doesn't really serve to prepare us for a problem anyway. 

What about the things that we ARE facing?  Not imaginary outer space trips, but very real, very present, black holes that threaten to swallow us and shrink us down. Oh my sweet friends, I'm not just spouting platitudes here; I've faced it. I'm facing it. Worries come, they do, it's simply a fact.  But what do we do with them?  Do we let them consume us?  Or do we run and tell the Lord?  

The Scripture says it better than I can; however, I can stand and give a witness as to the validity of these promises. 

Psalm 55:22 Cast your cares upon Lord Jehovah and he will support you, and he will never give terror to his righteous ones.  (Aramaic Bible in Plain English)

I Peter 5:6-7 So, humble yourselves under God’s strong hand, and in his own good time he will lift you up. You can throw the whole weight of your anxieties upon him, for you are his personal concern. (J.B. Phillips NT)