Why is it that problems seem to come in multiples? I remember all too well the pressure when our first son died soon after birth, and then our daughter was rushed into hospital 40 miles from home. My wife and I found that we could be “strong” for the “big” problems. It was the little things that could easily “do us in” by stealing our joy, making us wonder if we were completely crazy as our puppy was violently ill and left reminders all over the house.

 

Perhaps you have found that out as well, like we did when our roof was stripped for renewal this summer. The rain came down in sheets, pooling in the ceilings’ the gutters failed, water ran down the walls, the drive flooded and then my computer wouldn’t connect to the internet. 

 

Life does seem very able to present us with a list of “things to do” when we already have enough. One friend reported how she had been taking care of a number of other people’s things. She babysat their children; she fed their cats and walked their dogs. She took in their post and took out their wheelie bins. She watered their hanging baskets and picked tomatoes in their greenhouse and made sure she didn’t leave the lights on and that the doors were all locked. Alongside all this she was coping with family pressures on the death of a close friend, serious illness of another and worries about her husband’s work. These times of coping with things and caring for things often become exhausting. “I wish someone would spend as much time caring for me as I spend caring for these people and things,” we sometimes think, a little selfishly.

 

If we listen for God in these moments, he usually reminds us of the simple but breathtaking truth that there is someone taking care of each one of us like that – he is. How he cares may not always look the way we expect (or want) it to, but we can be assured that he’s always got our best in mind. That writer of psalm 121 said it like this: “The Lord watches over you. The Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm. He will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.