The Delight of a KITE

Nothing says “springtime” like a kite-shaped frosted brownie with the first cup of coffee in the morning! At the end of a long winter, the sight of a kite, even in brownie form, invokes thoughts of warm and breezy days on newly greened grass, celebrating the end of winter captivity with a little fun in the sun!

Kite-flying in suburbia seems to be a lost art these days. Rarely do I spot one in the sky as I used to do when I was young, following the string down with my eyes till I found the owner on the ground, enjoying the fun. It could be the congested way in which we live that’s caused the change, with few open spaces in which to run, free from treetops and telephone wires that want to grab and tangle the string or tail. Perhaps that’s why people have taken to sandy beaches on ocean shorelines as the optimal place to launch their air-borne treasures, where rarely is there a shortage of wind to take them up nor onlookers to applaud their efforts.

The beach in Lincoln City along the Oregon Coast is one of our favorite family vacation destinations, and there is simply nothing like looking up and down the sandy shore and seeing the myriad of multi-colored kites sin all shapes and sizes staked in the ground on a windy day or held in the hands of a family at play. The sight is as necessary to my beach experience now as the waves, seagulls, and sand.

While not generally a big fan of wind. I appreciate that it cleans the air of lingering pollutants and am always grateful for a gentle breeze on a hot day. But a roaring gale that blows away hairstyles, flaps anything not tied down and snaps tree limbs is something I could simply do without. And yet it‘s the wind I grow weary of that carries the kites I so enjoy to new heights in the sky. In it’s absence they simply tumble to the ground, often broken or damaged by the force with which they hit.

Similarly it‘s the adversities I face in life, the troubles or problems that threaten to rip loose my grip on it or cause it to spin crazily out of control that work positive change in me. How I deal with difficulties determines if I’ll fall and have to face them all over again or stand in silent satisfaction as I learn to use them to hold my dreams aloft.

 “…but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint…”
(Romans 5:4-5 NIV)

Dare to DREAM Again

When I think of dreams for the future, I picture them as clouds of white in a spacious sky, the possibilities before me as wide and open as the boundless blue in which they float. Just as clouds are continually forming, changing, and merging, so my hopes and aspirations for the future have as well as I’ve moved through my years.

When I was young, I used to fill the future with dreams as surely all kids do. By the time I got to college, my imaginations, hopes and plans had narrowed in scope until they could be pictured in a magazine photo that I kept taped above my dorm room desk to maintain my focus during those often distracting times. Meeting the man I was to eventually marry caused them to change in scope and direction again. And then came the kids!!! In the ensuing years of diapers and dishes, school and soccer, cars and jobs, any plans beyond making it through the next day, week or year gradually evaporated like the morning mist, unnoticed and unmissed once they were gone. I was simply happy in my life the way it was.

The lack became apparent to me during multiple church services in which I was encouraged to share my dreams with God. I suddenly realized I hadn’t any! Perhaps I had become so focused on the present that I had shut down my ability to ponder the future and fill it with ideas of what it might contain.

I had also changed radically in the years that had passed, a commitment to Christ gradually focusing my thoughts and desires on God and who He knew me to be. Jeremiah 29:11 assures us that God has good plans for our lives, a future filled with hope and prosperity, a destiny and purpose decided before while we were yet in our mothers’ wombs. And yet my spiritual vision has still been limited in scope.

And so He has encouraged me to allow Him to fill the vacuum in that area with possibilities that are present within my relationship with Him. When I heard the phrase “dream journal” in twice in the last couple of days, the repetition caught my attention, and the journaling idea caught my interest. I’m a huge fan of detailing what God’s doing in my life in a prayer journal I use on a daily basis. Reminding me that He is as present in my future as He is in my day-to-day, He suggested that I let Him fill my thoughts and the pages of that book with what that future might contain.

I now scan the spiritual horizon for signs of rain, as did Elijah’s servant physically at his command on Mt. Carmel so long ago. For the longest time the servant saw nothing but empty blue skies. Encouraged to keep looking, he eventually saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand off in the distance. Soon the sky filled with the same and the promised rain came pouring down.

I’m simply believing the same can happen again to me.

“For with God nothing is ever impossible and no word from God shall be without power or impossible of fulfillment.”
(Luke 1:37 AMP)