Life through the eyes of a balloon

A while back I was sitting parked in my car waiting for a friend to come out of the house. As I sat there I looked up to see in the distance a small peach colored balloon with a long tail, floating through the sky. It seemed like it came out of nowhere. I watched as it floated and bobbed up and down over the distant freeway overpass. It travelled onward, over cars and houses, buildings and a field of trees.

I began to muse about this little one, where had it come from? Had it travelled miles or just one block, perhaps from a local birthday party? I wondered if it would just float off into space or would some unexpected bush or building still its journey.

Then something happened. It began moving in closer to me and was headed towards a house across the street. It floated down moving across the lawn and then upward again, continuing its journey. Suddenly its tail got snagged on a tall plant. It bobbed and moved as though trying to escape, but, alas, it was stuck. Yes, the little balloon was stuck in a fate of possibly being rescued, popped or simply deflating over time. Poor little balloon where did you come from?

I thought about how our lives are like this: what is our story, where did we come from, and where are we going? We begin at one point, never knowing in reality where we will journey, or end up. We often wonder and stress over how long it will take to get where we are going. Will we have the strength to “stay inflated”, to make it to the end, or will our strength one day fail?

Thinking of the balloon’s story, I’d have to say the best part of its lifespan was the journey! The time it spent floating along in the wind, enjoying the ride, just being. How true this should be of our lives, as well. Even though we know we have a loving God who is with us throughout our lives, yet there are times life trips us up, and we worry, or we get stumped through circumstances and find it’s easy to agonize over what might come.
Let’s decide to enjoy the journey. Let us begin to stop worrying about the path ahead; we really don’t know where it will take us anyway, or pine for where we came from, because the wind’s blowing us on. Let us learn to enjoy the journey, the moving, the view, the wind in our sails, even when the storms toss and turn us. Let’s learn to enjoy our lives, breathing in every moment.

Yes, there will be bad days, and hard seasons. We may get stopped in our tracks as that little balloon did, suddenly, unexpectedly. We never know what tomorrow brings, but we know He guides our tomorrows. Let’s go this journey, living our lives to the fullest and look around and see all there is we can be thankful for in our lives. We can do this, because we know who holds our future.

Joanie Millier

Joanie Millier authors children’s books. She lives in California.