“Dad, why are you holding that potato?” I asked. He was rooting through the refrigerator drawers and the kitchen cabinets, doing it all with one hand. He looked down at the large russet potato that was occupying his other hand and answered, “Because I’m looking for an onion.” He wanted to make home fries, and it never occurred to him to put down the potato while he looked for the other ingredients.
I am clearly my father’s daughter. As soon as I begin one task, I notice another that needs doing and pick up the thing I need for that job. Before I know it I have too many things to carry – a toy that needs to go upstairs, a note reminding me to make a call, a dishtowel headed for the hamper, a pair of pliers to fix a broken drawer. There is nowhere to put the next thing I see.
It can be the same way with my care for people. I collect concerns about the many people I come across, so that sometimes my heart feels too full to add even one more prayer.
Jesus invites us to lay our burdens down, to give him all the anxieties we feel for neighbors and strangers, family and friends. We release our love and our fear into him, knowing his heart is big enough to hold it all. Now our hands and hearts are open, ready for the next need we encounter.
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