Dear God, I love you! Luke.
It’s not uncommon for a restaurant to offer my son a balloon. But I didn’t expect my son to say, “Dad, can I give the balloon to God?”
My immediate instinct was to say no – thinking “That’s politically incorrect today!” You know, some bird might choke on it. It’s liter! But then the Holy Spirit whispered, “Your son is wanting to give a gift to God”, and suddenly I realized that wasn’t something I wanted to squelch. Sorry bird, but you choking is a risk I’m willing to take – at least once.
So I went and found a marker at the host’s station, wrote a note to God on the balloon, explained to Luke this might be a one-time thing, and then we went outside and sent his Gift up to God. What fun it was to watch it drift up into the sky.
After several minutes it was impossible to see, and then Luke said, “And now God has it. I wonder where He will put it? I hope He thinks of me when He sees it in His house.” If you ask me, God just might have plucked it out of the sky and put it somewhere in heaven, and I don’t think there is liter in God’s house up in the sky!
Sometimes we just have to set aside our grown-up hesitations and just give in to the impulses of childhood. I made a video of the ascension of Luke’s balloon on my iPhone and we watch it over and over!
What simple gift have you give God lately?
Karl Bastian
UPDATE: I sent this out to my Kidology Champions Prayer Supporters e-mail list and got a nice note from a balloon expert exonerating me from any wrong doing:
Dear Karl,
I had to respond to this email…. don’t know if you’ll ever get this, though. I loved the story of your son’s balloon gift to God! I am a balloon artist and I wanted to let you know that sending a LATEX balloon (the rubbery kind, not the shiny metallic ones) is NOT an environmental mishap! Latex balloons are 100% biodegradable and are made from a natural product, the harvesting of which actually helps prevent deforestation of the rain forest. Latex is harvested from trees as sap without harming them, in the same way maple syrup is harvested. The trees can live and produce latex for about 40 years.
Also, you can rest easy in knowing that animals are not interested in eating latex… it’s not on their list of favorite foods! If they did accidentally eat any, it would pass through their digestive system intact or break down and disappear. A latex balloon actually biodegrades at the same rate as an oak leaf! I think God loves balloon gifts, especially those coming from the hearts of kids!
Thanks for all you do!
Lynn ____ (last name removed)
I replied that now I can sleep peacefully knowing that I have not killed some innocent bread out there somewhere or caused the earth to end one day sooner than it would have otherwise. LOL
I actually wasn’t too worried about it – I was more worried about getting a bunch of hate e-mails from some environmental wackos out there “YOU LET A BALLOON UP! YOU EARTH HATER YOU!!!” Because most schools have banned the balloon launch practice that we all did as kids claiming it kills birds and harms the earth. I’ve always said that’s rubbish. (Note the pun) But people who don’t believe in heaven have only this earth to care for, so we have to cut them some slack I guess!
Anyway, I appreciated her note, as with several other encouraging replies I got. Funny, people are always surprised that I actually get my own e-mails! Only 1400 more to go! Good night folks!
