Spring marks the beginning of Kite flying season!
Spring break starts for many this weekend. Some have vacations planned, others are waiting until summer to do their travelling. So the question is what do you have planned for your children this spring break? One thing that is great fun and very inexpensive to do is fly kites! Kites can be homemade or found at the dollar store for a very economical price. If you are ready for more of a challenge in the kite flying department, you can go to the specialty shops or shop on-line for more complex kites to fly. It will get the kids outside in the fresh air and they will also get some exercise running with their kites. They can have a contest to see whose kite goes the highest or stays aloft the longest. You can also take along some bubbles to play with while you are out in the wind and sun. Bubbles can also be homemade or acquired at a very economical price at your local bargain stores.
There is something magical about watching the sky and clouds as your kite and bubbles float aloft to heights we can only dream about attaining without help of planes or wings. Men have always wanted to obtain great heights, like the people of the Bible who wanted to build a tower to reach to the heaven so they could be on the same plane as God. We all know how that turned out, God destroyed the tower and confused their tongue so they all didn’t speak one language. Jacob dreamed about a ladder that reached from earth to heaven where angels ascended and descended to and from heaven. The Lord said that the heavens were His throne and the earth His footstool. And whether we realize it consciously or not, we have an uncanny urge to be near Him, and strive to reach heaven one way or another.
What we fail to realize is that the Lord told us He would be with His children always. We don’t have to try to go to Him, because He already came to us as a babe in a manger. When He died on the cross He opened communications one on one with our Heavenly Father, no intercession is necessary. He is with those who chose to be His children by accepting His blood sacrifice on the cross as our redemption for sin, and are given the gift of eternal life. We strive to be close to heaven, thinking the closer we get the better He will hear us. But the truth is He is only a prayer away.
I just love the song from the Disney show Mary Poppins, Let’s Go Fly a Kite:
LET’S GO FLY A KITE
Mr. Banks:
With tuppence for paper and strings
You can have your own set of wings
With your feet on the ground
You’re a bird in a flight
With your fist holding tight
To the string of your kite
Oh, oh, oh!
Let’s go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!
Let’s go fly a kite and send it soaring
Up to the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh, let’s go fly a kite!
Bert:
When you send it flying up there
All at once you’re lighter than air
You can dance on the breeze
Over houses and trees
With your fist holding tight
To the string of your kite
Londoners:
Oh, oh, oh!
Let’s go fly a kite
Up to the highest height!
Let’s go fly a kite and send it soaring
Up to the atmosphere
Up where the air is clear
Oh let’s go fly a kite!
Yes, kite flying can be a very special time for children and adults alike, as long as you view it as a sport and not a way to get closer to God, because He is right in your heart, if you are His child.
As parents we need to teach our children about being close to God in our daily communications. He is just a prayer away, always listening, always watching over us, and loving us unconditionally. Make it a daily practice to read the Word to or with your children, either as a bedtime reading or a family devotional. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
We as authors use the clouds and heavenly bodies in many of our writings, but not really considering the weight of what we write about. Have we ever mentioned that the heavens are the throne of God? Maybe it is because the sheer awesomeness of that idea leaves us speechless. He is closer than you think!
Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest?
Isaiah 66:1
In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.
John 14:2
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
Colossians 3:1-2
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:9
And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them, and carried up into heaven.
Luke 24:51