No worries

"'Mole, I'm afraid they're in trouble. Little Portly is missing again; and you know what a lot his father thinks of him, though he never says much about it.'

'What, that child?' said the Mole lightly. 'Well, suppose he is; why worry about it? He's always straying off and getting lost, and turning up again; he's so adventurous. But no harm ever happens to him. Everybody hereabouts knows him and likes him, just as they do old Otter, and you may be sure some animal or other will come across him and bring him back again all right. Why, we've found him ourselves, miles from home, and quite self- possessed and cheerful!'" The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Grahame)

According to the popular saying, ninety percent of the things that we worry about never happen. Looking back on my own experience I can see I've wasted time and energy turning things over in my mind; things that have happened and I cannot change, or things I fear may happen and cannot avoid. Yet in retrospect, so little of my worry was justified. Things, generally work out far differently in reality from anticipation.

In the sermon on the mount Jesus instructs us not to worry. "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?". And yet with all that I know of him, all that the past demonstrates, all too often I find my mind slipping back into worry. Sometimes it feels as if worry is not something I have any control over. Even if conciously I do not think about the things that worry me, my body nevertheless exhibits the symptoms of subconcious worry. Yet life is clearly better when we don't worry.

Last weekend I spent time with my godson. At ten months his life is pretty simple. Provided his basic requirements for food, warmth, affection and sleep are met he seems a very happy chap. It made me think again about what it means to "become like a little child". He does not worry about the future, partly because he has no concept of it, and partly because he has loving parents who ensure that he is provided for. I suppose the latter is the most important.

Sometimes it is easy to wish that life were simpler - but perhaps ultimately it is. Because we have a loving heavenly father who promises to provide.