What a heavy burden!

It was many years ago, but I still remember the aching back and shoulders.

My brother and sister-in-law along with friends were vacationing together in our area of Kentucky and came to spend a couple of days with us.

They told of being along a branch of Cumberland Lake where they found the shore to be heavily strewn with geodes. We lived less than 100 miles from the site and had never even heard of it.

In my ignorance of such things, I asked them to define geodes. Not only did they define the interesting rock formations, they got some out of their car, took a hammer and broke them open.

I was thrilled to see an abundance of crystals spew from the hollow rock and was immediately enthralled with the idea of picking up some of those beauties.

Now, the outside of the geode is anything but a thing of beauty. It is bumpy and looks very similar to a gray cauliflower head. But the inside! That's where the beauty lies!

Within a couple of weeks, we hooked up our little tent camper and made our way to that geode area for our own excursion.

We settled in on Friday evening for a weekend of camping, campfires and searching for geodes.

Saturday morning brought a pretty, bright sunlit day. After breakfast, we strapped on our backpacks and set off down the shore picking up geodes all along the way and droppping them in our backpacks. At noon, we returned to camp to empty them and have lunch. Then, we set out again.

Be now though, we had learned something. It would be much smarted to walk the distance we wanted to cover and pick up geodes on the return trip! No reason to carry them both directions! Truly a "live and learn" experience.

Anyway we spent the afternoon finding geode after geode and sticking them in our backpacks.

We were young and in excellent physical condition, so we really didn't notice the weight that much. Back at camp, we fixed supper and spent an enjoyable evening by the campfire.

Bedtime was welcome as we were a bit tired.

When morning came, we found we could barely turn over, let alone get out of bed! We had sore muscles in places we had forgotten even had muscles!

Oh! How we hurt! All from carrying around the unnecessary weight of rocks.

Painfully, we broke camp and drove home.

We tend to carry around the extra weight of unnecessary burdens in our Christian lives, too.

That worry? Share it with Jesus.

A loved one who is critically ill? Share it with Jesus.

Problems in the workplace or home? Share them with Jesus.

Money problems? Share them with Jesus, the very same Jesus who instructed Peter to catch a certain fish that would be holding a coin in its mouth. With that, he could pay the required taxes.

Give your burdens to Him who is able to carry them for you! Just as the geodes were unnecessary weight on our backs, so are most of the burdens we carry around. Share them with Jesus.