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| My son, Ricky, enjoying flying a kite in Panama City, FL. |
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I am not a kite person. I never had one as a child and still have no interest in building or flying an actual kite. My wife, on the other hand, seems to be an avid kite lover. I don't know the history behind Jen and kites. There may be no history at all, but I can assure you that right now there is a kite in the side box of my pick-up truck cap and it is just waiting for the chance to be freed from it's place of bondage and set loose on a glorious journey of the sky and Jen would be the one to suggest it, not me. It also would seem that there is an ideal place for kites to be flown...at the beach. I
am a beach person. Our family has had the great pleasure of spending hours, days, and weeks on the sands of several beautiful beaches including Panama City Beach, Virginia Beach, Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island in Florida, Bethany Beach, and our all time favorite, Topsail Island, North Carolina. Now I will not exaggerate and say that we have flown kites at each of these venues, but rest assured, the kite was probably there and/or the idea was brought up by Jen. Needless to say, I have gleaned some knowledge regarding the proper launching and subsequent flying of a kite. I must say that the one instance that sticks out in my mind under the heading of "kite flying" was not completely my doing, but I did have a part in it. One year, at Topsail with family, lots of family, a Superman kite had made the trip with us. (I have come to notice the correlation between the presence of children and kites. That is probably the source of my wife's kite affection-her children.) Without getting into the minutia of getting it into the air, I so remember how high, for how long, and just how awesome a sight it was to see
him flying up there. See, we had spent so much time flying this kite that we were able to release the entire ball of string and even let that go, as we tied it to one of the railings of the deck or catwalk. Of the dozen or more people on that trip, each and every person would take a few seconds to look up from a beach chair or look out a window to see where the kite was. If memory serves me, that kite flew for hours and hours without any hand holding the string before we had to reel it back in.
I am a daddy. I love being a daddy. I have had the opportunity to co-raise three awesome kids; two girls and a boy. One of those girls is 18 years old and so far, a fresh high school graduate. Right now she is out of the country on a mission trip to Grenada where she is using her talents, singing, playing the guitar, and my favorite, sharing the word of God, to make a difference in the lives of the people of that island, but especially a group of children four to six years old. My wife and I have obviously spent a significant amount of time preparing her for now. You know where I am going with this. You see, all of a sudden I realize how much I love kites and flying them, still not the actual ones, but the ones illustrated by our children. There is a huge similarity. There are memories of running and running as hard and fast as I could to try to get that kite up into the breeze. We sure have had our share of changes in the wind with accompanying nose dives. I will never forget the times that I had to quickly wind some string back onto the ball because there was too much slack and the kite began to falter. On the flip side, I have stood and felt the refreshing breath of God blowing in our life and felt as the string began to pull snug in the breeze. Her mother and I have watched as she has pulled away from us, climbing higher on the current of this blessed breeze, sustained by this heavenly wind. I now understand that I can build the kite, make her fit for flying. I tie my string to her, not to hold her down, but to help her fly. Have you ever seen a kite fly without string? Our malls are full of them, kites without ability to fly on their own, blowing wherever the harsh gusts of society choose. These are surface winds. Our desire should be to get them up from the ground and into the air. Isn't it interesting that the term used to parent a child to adulthood is "raise". The Bible uses the phrase "bring them up". So no, it's not by my power that they fly, but they need the string. I thought I needed the string. What I am seeing now is that the string no longer needs to be in my hand. She is on the wind, flying high. She still needs the string, but I don't. I think I'll tie it to something that won't move. By prayer, I will leave her in the care of the Rock that is higher than I, Psalm 61:2. Now I will bask in the awesome sight of my high-flying kite way up in the wind and I will watch as passers-by stop to watch it too. To them it will look like she has no string, but I know she does and I know Who is holding it because I can see it...from my Perspective.
Now for one of the best post scripts ever....
It has been over a year since I wrote this original content above and there have been a couple times I began to question its authenticity. The beginning of this year was rough and I gotta tell you, I wondered if my precious kite would stay airborne. Storm winds blow into our lives and can wreak havoc on a kite that "refuses" to come down. Well, I am thrilled to give you a refreshed view of my kite. My now 19 year old daughter is a missionary on deputation with the
Gospel Preachers Association/
Mobilization Ministries to raise support so that she can go back to Grenada for a six-month "tour" as a missionary teacher on February 11, 2104, right after her 20th birthday. She will be imbedded in Maranatha Baptist Church, where she will be teaching preschoolers through the week, working with teens on Saturdays, and on Sunday, teaching Sunday school & participating in the services at her home church. Feel free to check out her
Facebook page and be sure to "like" it while you're there to receive her updates. In fact, if you feel inclined to join in her "flight", you can go
here and donate.
God has amazed us with His ability to add string to the kite, even while it is flying. I've never had to do that before, but I am so glad He has. Now I can't wait to see how much string He has added. Have I mentioned that I love flying kites?
