Unpack your backpack
When my daughter started preschool, she had the most enormous backpack. Not only was she a tiny two-year-old, but I bought her the most oversized bag. I read that she needed a “full-sized” backpack, so her art wouldn’t get squished. Not wanting to get a wrinkle on her future masterpieces, I purchased for her an adorable backpack more suitable for a college freshman than a two-year-old at preschool.
I think of that ridiculous backpack every fall as children load up for the first day of school and students begin another new year. But this image comes to my head at other times, too, when I’m listening to people share the stories of all that they carry in their heads and hearts. So many of us bear the heaviness of worries. We hold responsibilities that weigh so much, it’s like we’re wearing a too-big backpack. The bulk of those worries encumber us and exhaust us, as our shoulders droop and our hope shrinks.
I wonder what it might mean, when we feel like we’re carrying the weight of the world on our shoulders, to hand some of our worries over to God. How might we set things down? What might it mean to tuck them into God’s carry-all to hold for a while? After all, Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) In prayer, in conversation, in community, we can unload our burdens.
I was talking with a mom of a high school freshman this week. Her son had been worried about starting school – navigating a new building, figuring out his locker, wondering who’d be there at his lunch table. His mom noticed how much these worries were weighing on him and she said, “How about you give me those worries to carry for you? I know you can’t totally abandon them, but how about I hold them?” I imagined him pretending to hand his worries over to his mom, and her putting them into her pocket. Later, he told her it helped, knowing he had someone else carrying the worries with him.
We’ve got this Savior who is ready to bear our burdens for us, to tuck our worries into his own pocket. It’s not like the tough stuff goes away. The responsibilities will still be there. We’ve still got to show up on that first day of school, but the backpack doesn’t have to be full and heavy.
My daughter’s backpack only ever held some paintings and a box of graham crackers on her snack day. Maybe we can unload the heavy things and let grace and mercy, joy and connection be what we carry, our own spiritual snacks. After all, we’ve got this Jesus who said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29-30).
