Part of why blogging was scary to me, was how public the fails would be. Anyone who is paying attention (which may be no one) would notice I haven’t been around in over a week. A lot has been going on, inside and outside of me, and suffice it to say I didn’t know what to write.  Until now.

One of the things that has been happening is that I have been made aware of a dizzying number of needs – from truly tragic situations to celebrations, and many very important things in between; there are other concerns I’ve been praying about for quite some time. When I know of a need, I try to be faithful to pray. And pray. And pray. As though the solutions depend on me and my prayers. I’ve started to feel afraid of forgetting to pray about these things – I don’t want to leave anyone out in the cold. It began to feel pretty heavy.

Yesterday I finally made room to sit down with my Bible and my Lord. I wanted to return to an awareness of who God really is, and let the reality of God’s ability, his greatness and his love sink in again. When I want to renew my awareness of who God is, I love to return to Genesis 1. I’m reminded that God is the loving creator. God made the sky, land and seas from nothing. He made vegetation, the sun and moon, birds and sea creatures. He made the animals and people… “He also made the stars” (Genesis 1:16).

I think this must be one of the greatest understatements in all of Scripture. When it was written, stars were seen as just little white lights in the sky. Since the advent of the Hubble Space Telescope, we are able to see just what God did when he made the stars. The images are awe-inspiring. (If you haven’t seen the pictures lately, take some time to look at them and other images of God’s universe at hubblesite.org).

When I remember that God “also made the stars,” everything falls into perspective. God can handle my concerns, and the concerns of those I love. The answers to my prayers do not rest on my constant pounding on the door of heaven. In 1 Peter 5:7, Peter reminded believers to “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” CAST – to “send something forcefully in a specified direction.” Once we cast something in God’s direction, we don’t have to reel it back in; this is a gift from our God who loves us and is fully capable of handling all of our concerns.

I’ve known all of this before. Somehow it was different yesterday. I felt lighter as I realized I don’t have to hold onto others’ problems – the most important thing I can do for anyone is to prayerfully place their concerns into the loving hands of the the ONLY ONE who can help. And its my joy to do so!