The Red Balloon

THE RED BALLOON

 

A few weeks ago, when I was eating breakfast and looking out the window, I spotted a small splash of red among the bare limbs high in the trees behind my house.  

  I soon determined it was a red balloon stuck among the skeletal treetops.  For several days, I watched the balloon wave in the wind, its metallic surface catching the sunlight and shining like a red lightbulb attached to the limb.  It was nice to see this bit of color in an otherwise gray landscape.

  Then, one day, the red balloon was gone.  My eyes searched the treetops, thinking perhaps it had floated to a different spot and I’d see it in another tree.  It was one of those cloudy, dreary winter days and the nice splash of red was nowhere to be seen.  I felt disappointed to see it go.

 Two days later, a flash of red caught my eye.  Ha!  The balloon was still there.  It had been there all the time – I just hadn’t been able to see it because it was cloudy and apparently the balloon had laid still against the far side of the tree limb.

  Immediately, I felt like God was showing me an illustration of a truth I'd just read.  God works in such mysterious ways and He will use the most mundane things to show us a bit more about Himself and His relationship to us. 

 At the time, I’d been reading my morning devotional, “Jesus Calling,” by Sarah Young.  The author writes as if Jesus is speaking to us, saying, “…your awareness of My Presence falters and flickers…When your focus is broad enough to include Me in your thoughts, you feel safe and complete.  When your perception narrows so that problems or details fill your consciousness, you feel empty and incomplete…Learn to look steadily at Me in all your moments and all your circumstances…Fix your gaze on what is unseen, even as the visible world parades before your eyes.”

  Sometimes we feel God’s presence wrapped around us, like a warm blanket on a cold day.  Like a balloon, flashing its red light as if to say, “Good morning!  I’m here to cheer your day!”  Other times, God seems so far away we wonder if He still knows we exist.  For some reason, we can’t see Him or feel His presence, so we think maybe He’s not there – like the day the red balloon was not visible.

  Just like the red balloon was there all the time, God is always right here with us.  He has promised never to leave us or forsake us – never, ever.  James reminds us, “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you,” 4:8.  Because God is always near us, I believe that verse means that we need to draw near to God so that we will feel His nearness, because it’s our awareness of His Presence that falters and flickers.  He is always here.

 “We love Him because He first loved us,” 1 John 4:19.

“By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit,” 1 John 4:13.