Thought for the Day - Friday 17 April

Thought for the Day – Friday 17^th April


Words from Matthew 10: 29-31:

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. And even the hairs of your head are all counted. So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

When I was teaching and when I was serving as a Hospital Chaplain in the Royal Children’s Hospital at Yorkhill I used to read the children a book called ‘The Huge Bag of Worries’ by Virginia Ironside.

It tells the story of a happy little girl who started to worry about all sorts of things and then woke up one morning to find a huge bag of worries at the bottom of her bed. This huge bag followed her everywhere. She tried to ignore it, she tried to throw it away but it always came back and as time passed she became more and more miserable.  She tried asking her brother for help – but he had no worries so was no help at all; she wondered about talking with her mum but she thought she would just say she was a lucky girl having family, friends and her health so she decided not to bother; she thought of asking her dad but he had worries of his own – bills to pay and a family to look after and so on. Every day the bag got bigger and bigger and she ended up not sleeping because it kept tossing and turning beside her in the bed. The bag dragged around her feet and made her late for school which only added to her worries and made the bag bigger. When she tells her best friend about the bag she suggests locking it in a cupboard but that doesn’t work either! Even her beloved dog could not help her because though he barked ferociously at the bag it always stood its ground!

One day the little girl has had enough – stretched to her limit, overcome with the worries and she sits down on a garden wall and cries her eyes out thinking she will have to live with this bag of worries for ever. However, a kindly old lady comes along and seeing the huge bag of worries she suggests opening it up and having a look inside which despite the girl’s protests she does saying, ‘There’s nothing a worry hates more than being seen. If you have any worries, however small, the secret is to let them out slowly, one by one, and show them to someone else. They’ll soon go away.’ 

The old lady sorts the worries into groups and the little girl is surprised to see how small some of them actually are – half of the worries immediately disappear just because they hate the light of day, some the old lady puts in her basket to deal with herself later, some she sent packing because she said they actually belonged to other people not the little girl, some she just blew a kiss to and some she said were worries that everyone had – and as for that huge bag it was then thrown away!

As we journey through this strange time when we do worry - don’t let your worries overwhelm you – remember this little story – let your worries out in the open – share them with someone – remember God is always a good someone to share them with! – some will instantly disappear – some are not really your worries at all so let others deal with them – some are just not worth worrying about and so can just be blown away with a kiss!

So don’t let yourself be burdened with a huge bag of worries – remember Jesus’ words:

So do not be afraid; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Prayer

Loving Lord,

We know it can be so difficult not to worry and not to let those worries weigh us down but may we remember always – even in the most difficult of times - to look to you who loves us and values us so much. We pray, too, that you may be with all weighed down by worry at this time and bring them your peace and your presence. Amen.