Silly Billy

Coralyn LOVES to read. We probably read at least 25 books, or more, a day. Often I read the same book multiple times. After awhile, I get tired of reading the same book over and over again, so I will ask Coralyn to read the book to me. And she does! Well, really she has just seen and heard the story so much that she has memorized the words, but still...

God seems to use Coralyn's children's books to teach me things about Himself and my relationship with Him. I guess He is meeting me on my level :)

Last night Coralyn had pulled out all the books from the library bag. She grabbed a handful and brought them over to me so I could read to her. I wasn't too excited, as I knew that I had read all of these books before, numerous times. I could probably recite them to you myself. My eyes lit up though when I saw a "new" book. I guess it had gotten "stuck" in the bottom of the bag, and somehow I hadn't read it all week.

The book is by Anthony Browne and called Silly Billy. The cover looked fun, so I was hoping the book itself would be good -- though you never can judge a book by its cover :). I thought it was going to have lots of rhyming words and things like that when I picked it out from the library. Little did I know God was going to have a lesson for me...about worrying and trusting Him (seems like this is a recurring theme lately!!!).

Billy is the main character (as you probably guessed from the title). He is a worrier. He worries about hats, and shoes, and clouds, and rain. He worries about big birds coming into his room and picking him up in their beaks and carrying him away. He worries about everything, very silly things really. As adults, we smile and laugh at the crazy imaginations kids have and the ridiculous things they worry about. Like any good parent would Billy's parents try to explain that he has nothing to worry about, but of course, their little pep talks don't do any good and Billy still worries. Silly Billy.

One night Billy has to stay at his grandma's, and this of course gives cause for Billy to worry. He tries to go to sleep, but he just can't. Finally, he gets up and tells his grandma that he is worrying, again. He assumes Grandma will think he is silly, but surprisingly she assures him it's perfectly normal, that in fact she herself had the same problem when she was a little girl. Then, instead of trying to get Billy to stop worrying, she gives him some Worry Dolls. He is supposed to tell all his worries to the dolls, which allows him to relax and sleep soundly.

Billy is so excited about his new Worry Dolls. Every night he tells them all his worries and is able to sleep. After a couple nights, however, Billy starts to worry again. About his Worry Dolls. He feels bad for troubling them with all his worries. So, he spends all day making Worry Dolls for his Worry Dolls. Silly Billy.

But, that night Billy is able to fall right to sleep, no worries. The book ends by implying that this cycle continues: Billy keeps on making Worry Dolls for his Worry Dolls for his Worry Dolls so that no one has to worry and can sleep without any problem. Seems like a lot of work to me...

The story is based on a legend from Guatemala:

The dolls were created by a young Mayan sister and brother whose mother -- a weaver of beautiful cloth -- had fallen ill and was unable to produce cloth to sell at the market. The children decided to use their mother's scraps to may tiny dolls, which they put in pouches that they also made from the scraps. The daughter is said to have told her worries to a few of the dolls, only to awake the next morning feeling much less troubled. And when the children brought the dolls to the market the next day, they met a mysterious stranger with a tall hat who listened to the sister's story and then bought all the dolls. According to the story, when the girl got home, she found the dolls from the night before in her pocket, along with a note from the mysterious stranger instructing her to share one worry with each doll before placing them under her pillow at night. To this day, children in Guatemala often trust their worry dolls to take away their worries as they sleep, and this custom has spread across the world.

I am more like Silly Billy than I would like to admit.

One, I worry about silly things. Granted, they may not seem very silly to me at the time, but if I look at life in the light of God's boundless power and wisdom, sovereign authority, faithfulness, goodness, love and compassion, etc. then really worrying about anything at all is absolutely ridiculous.

Two, I think that I can solve my problems by telling my worries to Lawrence, my family, my friends. I go to them for help, to get advice, to ease my mind, to find a solution to whatever difficulty I may be experiencing at the time. And that may indeed help...for awhile.

Three, I feel like I should have a three, but I don't...

Billy's story made me sad. Sad that so many people, Christians like myself included, live with worry. Crippling worry even. We fret. We fear. We doubt. We bite our nails. We wonder how in the world things are going to work out. We cringe. We shake in our boots. We droop under the pressure of the worry we carry around on our shoulders. Silly Billies we are!

Thankfully, we have something -- Someone -- much better than Worry Dolls. God doesn't want us to live with worry. He tells us to bring all our worries to Him, to let Him deal with all our troubles, to trust Him with our problems. Again and again He reminds us that He is in control, that He knows all things from beginning to end and is working everything out in the best possible way. He has all the details taken care of, and has for all eternity.

So why am I still such a Silly Billy?!