Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. - 1 Peter 5:7

One day an elderly man entered into a hospital. He was grumpy from being on medication and the nurses thought him to be insane as he yelled for his wife to get the apple basket. By the time they had checked him into his room the nurses were exhausted from the fight he put up.

"Sir you have to calm down.” They tried to explain. “We are doing everything we can for you."

"I don't need your help!" The grumpy man yelled. "I want my apple basket."

He finally slept. The nurses sighed with relief and talked among themselves whether they should call the hospital psychologist about the old man and his obsession with the apple basket.

As they talked and laughed about the situation the wife came in carrying the basket of apples. They looked kind of stunned as she asked if she could see her husband and deliver his basket. Sure, they agreed as they watched her slip past into his room.

Curiosity consumed them over the next few weeks as they tended to the elderly man. He was eaten with cancer and the doctors had given him no hope of survival. He turned out to be a very calm, happy man once he had his basket. His wife, they noticed, would come in with apples and go out with apples, and the curiosity grew even more until one nurse couldn't stand the suspense any longer.

One night, as he was nearing his end, the nurse sat in a chair by the wife. "May I ask why do you have that apple basket? I just don't understand the significance."

"I am an apple farmer by trade.” He sighed. “From the time I was 20 till the day I do die, I will forever have my apples." The nurse nodded thinking she understood. He just likes his work, she thought, assured now he was a little bit crazy.

As she started to leave, the old man asked her to sit down. "At age 20 I was saved; I accepted the Lord as my Saviour." Oh no, the nurse thought. Here comes the lecture on religion. The old man continued. "The day I accepted the Lord as my Saviour, I got this basket, and each time I had a problem or concern that I could not handle, I put an apple in the basket un-shined."

"Why?" the nurse said shaking her head.

"Because it reminded me to give those problems to the Lord for him to shine. See my basket now," he stated. "As my problems disappear so do the apples. As I get new problems, ones I cannot handle alone, I put an apple in."

The humble nurse looked into the basket...only one apple was there.

With that, he took a big breath and grabbed his wife by the hand and faded into eternal sleep. The wife paused for a moment and got up from her place to take from the basket the last remaining apple. She whispered in his ear that his reward awaits him in heaven.

The nurse stayed still and asked with tears in her eyes, "What do you think his riches will be?"

The wife knew what they were: eternal life with Jesus Christ. But she could see the concern and sadness upon the young nurse's face. She handed her the apple and said "the biggest apple pie you can imagine!"

That was the day the young nurse was saved, and from that day on she always had a basket by her bed.

The LORD urges us to cast all our cares and burdens upon Him, because He cares for us. Won’t you commit those cares to Him today? Nothing is bigger than Him; when you place your burdens side by side with God, everything else thaws in comparison to Him.

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

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