Cast all your care upon Him for He cares for you. 1 Peter 5:7

This Scripture has become one of my favorites. For one thing it is short enough for me to memorize and recall when anxiety takes a hold, especially in the middle of the night when I may be too tired to get out of bed to fumble for my Bible.

The shortest verses in the Bible are often the most profound. I think of Jesus’ terse “Follow Me,” two words which are both invitation and command from the Lord of creation to us. I think of Jesus’ “It is finished” on the cross and the dramatic shift in human history back into the Father’s embrace. I think of “Jesus wept” and what it says about the Lord’s deep love for us and His divine understanding of our human frailties.

In 1. Peter 5, the apostle reminds us that we have a God who does not leave us to muddle through life’s treacherous waters on our own. Like the Good Shepherd of Psalm 23, Jesus is the caring overseer who leads His sheep at all times and never allows them to stray too far. Sheep are totally dependent on the shepherd for all their caretaking. So also should we approach the Lord when anxiety and cares drag us down.

I’ve always loved words’ denotations and connotations. For normal, non-geeky people who don’t share this linguistic fascination ( or care a fig about them), this simply means that words have literal and implied meaning. Peter uses the word care (the English translation of Greek melo) two times in an eleven word verse. That catches my attention! But what’s especially interesting is that care has at least three literal and implied meanings in English: worries and anxieties (burden, grief, trouble); providing for someone’s needs (look after, tend, care take); and to be concerned about (pay attention to, take interest in, give thought to.) The last definition also implies a loving, selfless providing for another, like a mother’s care for her child and Jesus’ caring for his sheep.

1. Peter 5:7 is therefore, exceedingly rich in meaning. We’re encouraged and commanded to cast all cares upon God. Jesus says they are the cares of the world (Matthew 13:22 and Mark 4:19). They are the cares of riches (Luke 8:14) and the cares of life (Luke 21:34). They are anxieties about anything and everything (1.Peter 5:7). Is there any circumstance in life, ourselves and the world which Jesus does not cover in these verses?

There is nothing that we can not bring to God. Jesus was tempted in every way as we are and identifies with our weaknesses and anxieties. God’s care and caring is never far off – if we are humble enough to acknowledge Him and ask for help. He alone is our loving and providential Father who gives unending thought to us , whose eye always sees us as we are; Jesus is our selfless Savior who cared enough to go to the cross and now intercedes before the Father; and the Holy Spirit is Comforter, the tending Presence whose direction and assurance covers every and all anxiety.

Our God cares for us more intimately than words can describe.