Photo by Ross Sokolovski on Unsplash

Burden is a beautiful, all-consuming word.
She is a gift, costly to many, priceless to me.
Too heavy, too expensive for some to receive, carry, care for,
Love, nurture and enjoy.

Burden is a noun as well as a verb.
A load to be shared, a weight best carried when spread
Across the shoulders of an entire community,
Not one person or two or even three.

Burden can be known by her alter egos,
Significance, Substance, Intention or Meaning.
Known also as Cargo, she can be most cumbersome!
Gold, real gold, weighs its worth so heavily.

Burden carries with her the full range of human emotions.
Which weighs more; a tonne of feathers or a tonne of bricks?
Feathers make for the softest of pillows for weary heads
Bricks build on each other, mortared together to surround, shelter and support.

Burden is a beautiful, all-consuming word.
And I am refined by her syllables.
Thrilled when others come alongside to share in her Meaning,
They add more bricks along the way, building all our belongings.

Burden (whose real name is Blessing)
Has just sat down on my lap, smiling, to watch heavy rain lash against our window.
Forgive me, but I’ll just have to put this down for a while and finish it later….❤️

“I sometimes hear old people, including Christian people who should know better, say, ‘I don’t want to be a burden to anyone else. I’m happy to carry on living so long as I can look after myself, but as soon as I become a burden I would rather die.’ But this is wrong. We are all designed to be a burden to others. You are designed to be a burden to me and I am designed to be a burden to you. And the life of the family, including the life of the local church family, should be one of ‘mutual burdensomeness.’ ‘Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ’ (Galatians 6:2).” John Stott The Radical Disciple