Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

I have read many different accounts about what the last part of those verses means. My yoke is easy -- sounds kind of strange, doesn't it? Probably my favorite account is one I heard a couple of weeks ago.

According to Wikipedia, a yoke is a wooden beam which is used between a pair of oxen to allow them to pull a load (oxen almost always work in pairs). Okay, already, I'm seeing the picture. Jesus and I are yoked together, pulling the load of my life and my burdens. But wait. It gets better.

When a new ox is being trained, the owner will yoke him to one of his strongest and best trained oxen. The yoke can be adjusted to determine how much of the load each ox will carry. For most purposes, the oxen carry equal loads, but in the case of training, the new ox will have a very light load while the stronger, trained ox will pull the majority of the load. Basically, the new ox is merely going through the motions without having to carry the weight of his burden. Are you getting the picture now?

Jesus said, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." When we are yoked with Jesus, we are like that new ox. We are weak and untrained. Jesus yokes to us, bearing the weight of our burdens and leading us through the motions of our daily walk with Him. I don't know about you, but that gives me glory bumps!

Jesus never promised that the way would be easy. In fact, I can testify that it won't be. But He promised to be with us and to bear our burdens. That alone is more than we deserve. I'm so thankful to have a Savior who cares enough about me that He's willing to train me in the way that I should go. Aren't you?