What usually tends to identify a "normal" childhood is the same thing that seems to identify our pet animals: a lack of worry over the future.  How many times have I felt "Wouldn't it be great to be my cat or dog?"  No worries!  A life of eating, playing, sleeping, and hanging out.  Think about it: never having to worry about where the next meal's coming from, sleeping as much as I want and no expectations whatsoever.  Yes, heaven just might lie in being reincarnated as a cat or dog in a loving household.  Most kids, at least up to a certain age, have it much the same.  Growing up, I never had to worry if I was going to eat or not, or where I would sleep.  I sadly realize many children's lives are not like that today.  But for many if not most, their parents protect them from knowing hunger or homelessness. But as we become adults, what then tends to identify us is the gradual creeping up of anxiety and worries.  This can get so bad we forget we actually have been living fairly well and have been taken care of, by hook or by crook, for quite some time.  We catch ourselves stressing over a future that has yet to be written.

Most kids never spend time worrying about if they'll eat or if they'll have clothes to wear to school.  Why is this?  Because they know they have a parent or two who can be completely depended upon to provide for their basic needs; a faith based on a proven track record of experience even though they have absolutely no idea really how their needs will be provided for.  They just know mommy and daddy will take care of it and make it happen.  In this way, they are-as Paul claims we should remain as adults-"stewards of God's mysteries."  In others words, we should only read the story that's in front of our eyes instead of stressing over what's yet to be written, because God will surely surprise us at every turn with the mystery of dependability.  That's what makes God, God.

Think of us in this way, as servants of Christ and stewards of God’s mysteries. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they should be found trustworthy. But with me it is a very small thing that I should be judged by you or by any human court. I do not even judge myself.  I am not aware of anything against myself, but I am not thereby acquitted. It is the Lord who judges me.  Therefore do not pronounce judgement before the time, before the Lord comes, who will bring to light the things now hidden in darkness and will disclose the purposes of the heart. Then each one will receive commendation from God.

 

 ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.  ‘No one can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

‘Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?  Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?  And can any of you by worrying add a single hour to your span of life?  And why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  Therefore do not worry, saying, “What will we eat?” or “What will we drink?” or “What will we wear?”  For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. ³³But strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

‘So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

 

A Song of Ascents. Of David.
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
   my eyes are not raised too high;
I do not occupy myself with things
   too great and too marvellous for me.
But I have calmed and quieted my soul,
   like a weaned child with its mother;
   my soul is like the weaned child that is with me.

O Israel, hope in the Lord
   from this time on and for evermore.