WHO IS CARRYING YOUR PACK?    

"Here.  Hold this," my husband said handing me a bulging back pack taller than my nine-year-old son.

The back pack carried sleeping bags, fishing poles, and mess kits, along with everything else he and our kids needed for a weekend hiking trip. I tried to put the pack on my back but it was so heavy it nearly knocked me over.

"Why is it so heavy?" I asked, jokingly and dropped it to the ground. He just smiled at me and then said,

"Because I love my children."

It is tradition in our family for my husband to take my kids on a back tripping up to Joan and Gem Lakes at the end of the summer. He has been doing this hike with his father since he was boy and now he shares it with our kids. This trip is quite an undertaking. Each back pack has to be methodically packed with just the right weight so the kids can carry as much as they can on their own. If our children's packs are too heavy, though, they won't make it up the steep incline leading up to the lakes. Thus, the reason for my husband's heavy pack. He has to carry what they can't.

I must admit that there is no way I could have carried that pack on my back for any period of time. But when my husband put it on his back, he made it look easy, not because it wasn't heavy. But because, well, remember what he said?

Because I love my children.  
  
I had never picked my husband's pack before. For the past five years, I've stayed at home with our youngest child while he hiked more than a mile and a half with the older kids up a steep and rocky mountainside carrying almost 60 pounds of weight on his back. Two sleeping bags, two tents, food for four, blankets, pillows, rain gear, clothing and that was only some of it. What did the kids carry? The soft stuff. Basically, their clothes. My oldest did carry a lot more in her pack this year and each year the other kids will be able to carry a little more as they get taller and get stronger. But for now, my husband willingly carries the heaviest pack.

Because he loves his children.

So this morning I awoke to this thought:  Let me carry your pack. It's heavy and I want you to be able to make it up that steep incline.

Who says that? Who pleads with us to let him help carry our heavy loads. Isn't that what Christ pleads with us every day? He packs on extra weight so our burdens may be light. And he does it willingly.

Heavenly Father wants his children to experience the thrill of mortality just like my husband wants our kids to experience the thrill of the Uintas. But as any good father knows, little ones can't always carry their pack by themselves and sometimes all they can carry is soft stuff.  

God gave us his only begotten son to carry the heavy stuff  because he loves his children.

Right now, my pack feels pretty light. It's almost as if I can't feel it. And it's because I know who is carrying it.

How grateful we should be that Heavenly Father knew we would need help carrying our packs. But Christ can't carry our packs unless we let him. So think about what is worrying you? What is overwhelming you? Is there anything that feels hard? If so, pack it up. Put it in the Savior's pack. He's willing to carry it. And He will go the distance, all the way up that steep incline, over those rocks, and through the trees until you reach your destination. And why? Why would our Savior do such a thing? Because Jesus Christ knows how much his father loves his children.

Because he loves our children, my husband carries a heavy pack. And I'm so grateful that he does.