Thursday, June 30, 2022
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
And so we will be with the Lord forever
I bought the kites at Walmart for 88 cents each. There were three, with pictures of a dalmatian, Mickey Mouse, and the Little Mermaid, and they went together pretty easily. Some plastic sticks and a long black tail; tie on the string and they’re ready to go.
Off with you, visionary, flee!
Actually the string was the fancy part, 500 foot rolls on two handled spools big enough to really hold on to. We had them for Andi’s 12th birthday party on April 6, but her party day had been rainy and ugly outside, so we played charades instead. So there they were, ready to fly, and were in Lincoln at my parents’ house in the country on the day before Easter. And this time the sky was blue and the air was gentle and warm.
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The commands of the Lord are more precious than gold.
We had a great lunch, and the conversation afterward was intriguing, but I found myself drawn outside. Andi and her cousin Christian were playing catch. The wind was nearly still. The kites looked so inviting, those cute faces, calling to be up in the air. We tried them, running this way and that, looking for a breeze. But we were between buildings, and the kites kept falling back to the ground. Finally we headed for the open spaces of the fields.
Out there, while were standing on the ribbons of grass surrounded by unplowed gray earth, the wind caught our kites and carried them up into the sweet, blue sky. First one, and then another, high into the air. And in that vast space suddenly expanded into three dimensions, Andi and Christian and I shouted to each other. We all felt filled up with joy.
The kites drew more of our family out to the field. Chris, Matthew and Israel began playing baseball in the field beside us. I went back to the house to get more plastic to make longer tails, and my brother John brought out the third kite. Dad helped me cut some more plastic for tails, and we stood in the green grass and watched the faces in the sky.
It felt like more than three generations out standing in their field. I was son and parent, there with my children and my dad, and we were all high in the sky, climbing higher and higher, reaching toward heaven.
Many years ago a good friend gave me a keepsake when we left Waynesville, and we parted ways. He burned the image of a hot air balloon onto a wooden plaque, with “1 Th 4-17” crudely carved alongside it, and then colored the plaque blue and red, yellow and green. First Thessalonians 4:17 reads: “… we who are caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.”
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are true and just, sweeter than honey from the honeycomb.
The April sun warmed our backs on the day before Easter. We felt the new soft grass almost growing beneath our feet. Behind us a horse named Cheyenne waited to be fed. And above us our kites flew, finally, at the end of their strings.
500 feet high, and it seemed like a mile. They were smaller than small, and we were riding on their wings.
– (First published April 21, 1998)
(Amos 7, Psalm 19, 2 Cor 5, Matthew 9)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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