Flying Kites

 

Across the road from my house is a large oval, and it is a great place for flying kites.

Now this is one skill I have never been able to master (one among many I might add). I have trouble launching the kite into the air, and even more trouble getting it to stay in the air. Lots of running, winding, more running, more winding, and eventually a lost temper and a trudge home.

So I admire good kite flyers, and I love to sit and watch them manoeuvre their kites through the air, allowing them to catch the wind and dip and dive on the air currents. Kites can come in all different shapes and sizes and designs, but in the hands of someone with skill, they seem to take off and hover and fly with what looks to me like ease.

As I watched a kite flying recently, I thought of it as a metaphor for my life, and probably for most of our lives. One minute we can be soaring – flying through life with the wind filling our sails. Success, joy, great relationships, sense of peace – whatever it is, we seem to be right up there, with life going great.

But it doesn’t take much for it all to come crashing down to earth. Whether it be sickness, or loss, harsh words or just a run of misfortune, we come a-crashing down, and feeling like having hit the bottom, we have to pick ourselves up and start all over again, aiming to once again catch the breeze and rise.

This was certainly the pattern of my life. I’d be cruising along until I’d do something stupid, or make a bad choice, or just suffer some misfortune, and I’d be brought back to earth with a painful thud. But then I placed my life in the hands of a skilled ‘kite-flyer’ ie God. With God pulling the strings, I’ve had far less crashes, and I feel as if my life is propped up by a Divine wind that keeps me flying. Sure I take a dip and a dive every now and then, but something pulls me back up without having to endure a painful crash.

This summer, as you see a kite flying in the air, may you think about who is pulling the strings of your life. Is it you? If so, do you keep falling, crashing? Let go – give your life over to God, and maybe with your life in the hands of a skilled kite-controller, you’ll fly higher than you ever have before.

www.salvationarmy.org.au/mornington