Go Fly A Kite

Saturday, I flew a kite! It was a beautiful breezy day and my daughter had just gotten a cheap (99 cent), flimsy kite, so we headed over to the front yard of the church. On the way I thought, “This is never going to work, but at least we’ll have a nice walk on a pretty day.” Much to my surprise, the kite flew easily. In fact, it soared to at least fifty feet – pretty impressive for a five-year-old and a Dad with no kite-flying experience.

God uses experiences like this to cause me to reflect a great deal about Him, about life, and about what’s really important. Remember Mary Poppins? At the beginning of the movie, the kids get lost chasing a kite and their impatient Dad yells at them. By the end of the movie, he’s realized what really matters and he’s standing next to his kids flying kites with them. Nothing in the world was more important to me at that moment than flying a kite with my little girl. So there’s lesson number one – sometimes you just need to go fly a kite.

I also reflected on Jesus’ words to Nicodemus in John chapter 3. He told Nicodemus that the Spirit is like the wind, blowing wherever He desires. Interestingly, the words “spirit” and “wind” are essentially the same in Greek – pneuma. So it was kind of a play on words, but the point was that the Holy Spirit was in charge. I always had a hard time understanding that verse until I flew the kite.

You see, I couldn’t control the kite at all. All I could do was hang on to a string – the kite twisted and turned in the air, and occasionally took a nosedive. What I could not do was control the wind – I could only hope that the kite followed it. We can’t control God either. We can, however, give ourselves totally to His leading. And when we do, we soar!!

A final lesson – even flimsy and fragile kites can soar. That’s me sometimes. Unable to navigate life on my own and often not strong enough to handle the current, God lifts me, supports me, and uses me in spite of my weakness and my flimsiness. Our little 99 cent kite did pretty well!

So my advice to you? Go fly a kite… soon! Don’t let the next pretty day pass without some reflection. Go learn what it means to soar!