By Brenda Groves
The Post Newspaper Contributing Writer
A few years back, my husband and I watched a small segment of a program about historic floods that happened in the United States. They were sharing sad stories of lives lost, but also heroic acts that reportedly took place during these events.
One account in particular deeply touched my heart.
I didn’t hear all the details leading up to it but many years ago a woman, along with her daughter and very young son, were caught in the midst of quickly rising flood waters.
They literally ran for their lives in an attempt to reach safety, but the woman and her daughter quickly became stuck in the deep mud being pushed ahead of the water, leaving them in the direct path of the rushing water.
When both mother and daughter realized that they were not going to make it in time, they made a decision to try to save the toddler.
So in one last act of desperation, they each grabbed ahold of the baby, one holding his arms, the other his legs, and with all their combined might, they swung him towards higher ground.
Sadly, the mother and daughter perished but as recorded, after 30 minutes, eyewitnesses at the scene were able to pull the baby out of the mud, head first, mouth full of dirt, but — as incredible as it may seem — alive and well.
The program then switched to an interview of that child, now a grown man in perhaps his thirties or forties, who testified of his knowledge gained from these same witnesses and authorities who were present at the time.
Now, as I watched this story unfold, two things came to mind. My first thought was, “what an unselfish act on the part of this mother and daughter!!!” Instead of accepting complete defeat, with their own lives in peril, they didn’t make a choice to die together as a family, but rather chose to come together to try and save another human being’s life.
The second thing that crossed my mind was this scripture, “… casting all your care upon the Lord for He cares for you.” I began thinking about how this is worded in the Bible. God didn’t say to place “the care,” or lay it down before Him, or hand it over to Him.
He said to “cast it!” It literally means to “toss or throw.”
I know this is a broad spectrum that I’m dealing with here, but in our own lives, there are people and things that we care about: family, marriages, friends, jobs, relationships, and on and on.
Now there are physical things we must do, take action (like the mother and daughter had to physically throw the baby toward safety), yet at the same time trusting that the Lord cares for us. We can toss the care of our “situation” believing that He WILL catch it. But we first have to make a decision in our hearts to let go of it and “cast it!!”
I don’t know about you, but many times I feel like after I have cast a care, many times I can begin to doubt that the Lord caught that care of mine.
After all, it could have been a bad throw on my part, so I run and try to grab it back in mid-air. Or maybe it was a wobbly toss that got stuck in the mud.
But I have learned that when I take time to stop and focus my mind on the Lord when I cast my cares, the peace of God floods my heart.
The Lord is rich in mercy and is abounding in love and grace. Trust in His goodness and His willingness to direct it towards you.
Or if you are that “care” and you feel like you’re sinking in a mire of mud, call out to Jesus with all your heart and He will care for you and give you a new life!!
“… God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.’ 1 Peter 5:5-7
