Worry Wrapped in Blue [worry]

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“What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, to not be so preoccupied with getting, so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way He works fuss over these things, but you known both God and how He works. Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. Don’t worry about missing out. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met,” Mth. 6:31-33.

“Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now,

and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow.

God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up

when the times come,” Mth. 6:34.

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“I am not wearing this sweater Momma!” William sobbed entering my bathroom distraught over the selection of clothes for that school day. And so begins our day.
Wyatt Pete, his twin was already wearing the alternate outfit, a Ravens sweatshirt, with a slight smirk.

“I cannot wear this Momma, it’s too embarrassing!” William cried.

“Embarrassing? Why is that sweater embarrassing?” I asked, although I already knew the answer.

“You know Momma, IT will happen again and then I’ll get teased at school!”

“It” was a reference to the previous Sunday at church when William had worn that sweater and left with two little girls smitten by him. Wyatt Pete announced on our van ride home, “Caroline said Will looked handsome today.” Then William added, “Yeah Momma, and the other Caroline said she wanted to share her Christmas presents with me.”

“Looks like William is having some girls with crushes on him,” Wyatt announced from the seat beside Will with more than a little smirk!

“Must be that sweater William, you look so handsome in it!” I joked regrettably, for that forever sealed the fate of the now blacklisted blue sweater. By his reaction, you’d have thought I was asking him to go to school with underwear on his head---course that he would have thought was hilarious.

“Really?! Are we going to start our day with such a fuss over something so small as a sweater?” I asked William.

His mind was made up, his heels dug in and I was trying to remember if I’d ever seen him so insistent on not doing something he was expected to do.

“One day you’ll be happy about little girls having crushes on you and you’ll be looking for that blue sweater,” I tried to convince, but to no avail.

“Trust me William, there are worse problems you could have! The sweater is not the reason girls like to spend time with you; it’s because you are funny and kind. God’s growing those things in your heart. What you are wearing doesn’t make you who you are,’ I said, but again he was not convinced.

At that moment “IT” not happening all over again and leading to a lunchtime table long crew of all his kindergarten peeps chanting “William’s got a girlfriend” was the worst doom he could imagine.

‘Worst doom’ wears a different mask at every stage of life. I began to recount the lengthy list of items in my life I had worshipped (given my full devotion and attention to) in worry. I’ve been shown the futility of the time I spent trying to control or worry about the big and small. God showed me that my worry was really irritation with Him for not working life out on the schedule I, with my very limited sight, had deemed best. Go back over your own list, from as far back as you can remember and just see if God doesn’t have a lesson in there for you.

At each stage of life someone who has already walked the path we are struggling on can say, ‘child, you really shouldn’t worry over this, the worry will only rob you of joy He intends for you to have, trust.’ If we are wise enough to see the time we’ve wasted on past issues, the same wisdom calls us to make the connection and stop worrying in the present. When I consider the time wasted on worry I realize the object of my worrying grows and grows, but the pay off never seems to get any better. Seems we’re supposed to learn from our own fits over sweaters that these things really are small potatoes in light of what He is building into us for eternity.

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“Don’t fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life,” Phil. 4:6-7.

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