“You worry too much,” complained my husband.
“But our son is too young to travel overseas by himself,” I answered. “He shouldn’t make this trip alone.”
Our son was 18 years old. He wanted to spend a few weeks in London while school was out. He loved to travel and my husband encouraged him on this adventure.
“He needs to learn to get around by himself,” my husband assured me. “Besides, when I fly to London, I can check on him at the hotel.”
The two men in the family won the debate. It was time for our son to leave, and I felt encouraged when he assured me he would call when he arrived in London. At 5:00 pm, my phone call came. My son had arrived and was calling from a phone boot at the subway station.
“What time is it there,” I asked.
“Midnight,” he replied.
My anxiety eased a bit as he filled in the various details of his trip. In the middle of the conversation, however, the phone went dead. When after a few minutes he didn’t call back, I began to imagine the worst.
Was he mugged?
Several days passed and he still had not called again. My worry became more and more intense. I sat with my Bible in my lap, crying and praying at the same time.
I pleaded, “Lord, please tell me that my son will come home! I need to know.”
I turned to the Psalms for comfort when my fingers slipped and the book of Jeremiah fell open. I looked down and read, “I will bring the children from around the world to their own Land.”
My heart skipped a beat.
Did I read that right?
I read it again. With joy and relief, I started to cry again.
Running to the front yard, I called to my husband, “Jerry Jr. is coming home!”
“So he finally called?” he replied.
“No, he didn’t,” I responded. “But God just gave me a word from the Bible.”
Together we sat and thanked the Lord.
That next week, our son did come home and explained that he had run out of phone tokens when he called.
While I continue to battle with occasional worry, I know that God cares about all the things I fret about and that God’s word will always be there to comfort me.
Here are a few verses that I turn to when I worry:
“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?” – Matthew 6:25
“Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God” – Philippians 4:6
“And can any of you, by worrying, add a single hour to your span of life?” – Luke 12:25
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