Oh! My Aching Back!

Two boys were helping their father carry the logs which he had just finished chopping for the fireplace. Johnny, age eleven, stood with arms outstretched while his father placed the logs on his arms. His older brother, Bobby, who was fourten, stood impatiently in line waiting for the younger brother to get on the move. Johnny kept waiting while his father put piece after piece of wood on his arms. Finally Bobby, with an air of superiority looked down at his little brother and gave him a nudge in the back as he growled, "Get going, that's enough for you."

Johnny looked around at his bigger brother with a grimace of protest and replied, "Mind your own business, my father knows how much I can carry."

Anyone who thinks of the words of the Lord's Prayer realizes just how true this fact is when we are dealing with God. Our Father knows how much we can carry.

Sometimes the load we bear may seen very heavy. At times it may seem more than we are able to carry. And there is always someone ready to agree with us that we are having a really rough time. They sympathize with us and assure us that they would never be able to do the things we do. If we take these people seriously we may be looking up to God with a "See here, Lord" attitude. "This is getting to be too much. Why do I always have to bear these things? Why do I get the dirty end of the stick? Other people make mistakes and prosper. I try to do what is right and never seem to get anywhere."

Never forget that the manufacturer knows his product best. He knows how much it will withstand and what it should not be subjected to in the line of tests. After all he makes these things.

Well, God made you and me. He knows how much we can take, and more than this as an all-knowing God He knows just how much is good for us. He will not overload us with more than we can carry.

When we begin to think that things are getting a mite too rough or when someone tells us how hard we have things, just remember the confidence of the little boy in his father. Remember, too, that our Father knows just how much we are able to carry.

From Contact with God, by Fr. James D. Moriarty