Bear(s) With Me | Bellevue SDA Church

Photo and Commentary ©2023 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, October 8, 2023

From left to right, meet Sluggo and Theodore. They have been my lifelong friends. I think I inherited them, as I did many things, from my older sisters, who were the first to love them.

My father named them. He pretended that Theodore was the upstanding citizen and Sluggo was the troublemaker. I took both of them peacefully to bed with me each night, but often I would find them in odd places in the morning, with a handwritten note left on the dining room table, explaining that Sluggo had been up to some tricks in the night, much to Theodore’s dismay.

I brought out my bears this past week so I could take them to church and show them as part of a children’s story. Holding these scruffy yet treasured friends brought back a lot of memories, mostly of my father’s sense of humor and the enjoyment he derived from surprising his children. I think I inherited a fondness for the whimsical from him.

But the two bears also, believe it or not, also reminded me of two confusing Bible verses, contained in the passage below:

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. But let each one test his own work, and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. For each will have to bear his own load. (Galatians 6:2-5 ESV)

Do you see my confusion? We’re exhorted to “bear one another’s burdens” and yet told that “each will have to bear his own load.” That’s a headscratcher for me.

George R. Knight brings clarity with this explanation:

“How is it that we need to share each other’s burdens (verse 2) yet carry our own loads (verse 5)? The answer lies in the fact that we are looking at two different Greek words. The burden (baros) of verse 2 is a crushing one, whereas the load (phortion) of verse 5 is like an individual soldier’s quite manageable pack, from which ‘each is supplied with his own provisions.’ Thus if we are walking by the spirit, we will be gently working to help other Christians down the pathway of life, but each us also remains responsible for daily living personally in the Spirit in our journey.” *

That helps.

As the mileage of my trips around the sun continues to add up, I find great encouragement in this Bible “bearing” promise:

Those who are planted in the house of the Lord
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
To declare that the Lord is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.
(Psalm 92:13-15 NKJV)

But best of all, as we step into this brand-new week, the Saviour who bears our burdens walks beside us, eager to lighten our load as we trust ever more deeply in Him.