Isaiah 46:3-9 — Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb: And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made , and I will bear ; even I will carry , and will deliver you. To whom will ye liken me, and make me equal , and compare me, that we may be like? They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith ; and he maketh it a god: they fall down , yea, they worship . They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place , and he standeth ; from his place shall he not remove : yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer , nor save him out of his trouble. Remember this, and shew yourselves men : bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors . Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,

Do you remember the song, “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother”? I’m not sure if Neil Diamond or the Hollies had the bigger hit with it. It came to my mind as I thought about this piece. The origin is really interesting — the notion passed through several hands but it is said to have started with James Wells, Moderator of the United Free Church of Scotland, who in his 1884 book “The Parables of Jesus” tells the story of a little girl carrying a big baby boy. Seeing her struggling, someone asked if she wasn’t tired. With surprise she replied, “No, he’s not heavy; he’s my brother.” Perhaps you remember the lyrics? They start:

The road is long
With many a winding turns
That leads us to who knows where
Who knows where

So on we go
His welfare is of my concern
No burden is he to bear
We’ll get there

Myra became a Christian when she was thirty eight years old. I’m slower on the uptake. I was forty seven years old. But we have come to realize the truth of this beautiful passage from Isaiah. God is our Father, and we are no weight for Him to carry.
We both had moments in our lives, before we became Christians where — looking back — we see God was taking care of us, when our welfare was His concern. Myra, for instance, knows that she would have died in a motorcycle accident when she was only eighteen if God had not held His hand over her in front of an advancing double-decker bus.
We have both followed long and winding paths to bring us to where we are now. We both know that only God could have planned the way we eventually met, married and moved to America.
God was carrying us from the moment when we were conceived. He’ll carry us until the moments that we die.
There are people today who, just like the Babylonians that Isaiah was prophesying about, place their faith in idols. Isaiah surgically skewers the notion that there’s any point to such a silly idea. Many people build those idols — house, position, lifestyle, possessions — based on their wealth, their “silver and and gold”. What happens next ?They have to keep working, keep struggling, to maintain the idol. The idol becomes a burden to bear, and anything but a help and support when times get hard.
Let us be men and not fools, and remember that there is no other “god” like God. He is the only one who tells his worshippers “you ain’t heavy, I’m your Father”!