Casting Cares

Yesterday, I had the chance to be involved in the Arrow Varsity Cluster CIP event which was to bring students from a primary school to Sentosa. The plan was to bring them to Underwater World and to watch the show at the Dolphin Lagoon.

On the briefing notes there was this one point which Weiyi, my team IC, shared on and that was the point about helping the kids to carry their belongings to make their day more enjoyable. She shared that it was like how Daddy God wants to take all our worries, cares, fears and our "baggage" because "He cares for [us]" (1 Pet. 5:7).

When I met the boy that was going to be my "buddy" for the day, I offered to carry his bag. He hesitated at first and shook his head. He was very quiet and I guess he was a little shy so he tried to reply with as little words as possible and preferred to answer with a nod or shake of the head. His reaction reminded me that sometimes we hesitate to give our cares to God and we would rather carry it ourselves. He already offered that we "cast all [our] cares on Him" (1 Pet. 5:7) but we do not often take Him up on that offer.

I was reminded of what Pastor Benjamin shared during the last Arrow Service and the Care Group message about giving our cares to God. That encounter with the boy and his bag has become a reminder to me of how much God wants to lavish His love on us and He wants to take all our heavy burdens and take care of it for us. The only thing stopping Him from doing so is when we choose to carry the weight upon ourselves. I was definitely not going to force the boy to give me his bag, but I did offer and he decided to allow me to help him.

I cannot speak for the boy but I felt that he was much happier running around without his baggage to weigh him down and seeing him so carefree made me feel good. I believe that God experiences the same feeling when we allow Him to be God and carry for us our cares.

Even though I just met the boy, because he was assigned to me, I felt a desire to take care of him. It's a very natural human instinct to take care of someone much younger and it could even be seen as obligatory but I wanted and I tried to make his day as fun as possible for him. How much more for God who loves us so much? Who thinks of us so much that if we were to number the thoughts He has towards us, "they would outnumber the grains of sand" (Ps 139:18). And each of those thoughts are "thoughts of peace not of evil, to give [me] a future and a hope" (Jer 29:11). He wants us to experience a fulfilling life and life more abundantly!

If He cares for me so much then I want to allow Him to carry every single care that I have. Even if they may try to come back when I have already cast them to Him, I want to keep on casting and casting and casting and I know that soon enough, that care will be taken care of.