The Parable of the Kite

by Stacy Schofield Hair

(modified by me)

There once lived some children, so faithful and true, With so much potential, so much they could do. Their favorite pastime was spent in the park- Flying their kites, from dusk until dark.

Their father had built them, their bright, sturdy frames, They seemed to hold up when the strong whirlwinds came.

They had long tails, and what joy they could bring, As they flew through the air, tightly held by the string. Their father had warned them, to hold on quite tight, The trial of the wind could put up a big fight, These children grew restless, just watching them fly, They wanted to see them soar deep in the sky. One day they decided that it wasn't fair, To punish these kites, and to hold back the air, These kites deserved more than the same point of view, If they just let them go, they could fly away too. In just a brief instant, they cut off the strings, And took a deep breath as the air caught the wings It spiraled; it turned, and quite soon they had found Their precious kites mangled and crushed on the ground.

They then heard their father, his voice calm and true, My children, these commandments are given FOR you To help you and guide you and keep you a flight, Just as string has preserved your invaluable kites.

I love you. I need you. You're precious to me. If you keep my commandments, they help make you free!

Free to fly high, free from the sorrow, Free to awake without guilt for tomorrow.

My children, please know that I'm sending my love, I'll guide you; I'll hold you with strength from above. As I hold tight your string, I won't let you down, I promise, in heaven, that you'll get your crown! I've always loved this parable and thought it fit perfectly with our kite flying adventure.

Kaleb got some kites for his birthday. A Buzz Lightyear one and a Little Mermaid one.

(He graciously gave the Little Mermaid one to his sister ;)

So we went to the park last week to let them fly.

It's been a long time since I've flown a kite. I don't remember it being so easy. Probably because I was always trying to fly one of those expensive ones like the poor father next to us was trying to do with his small child. They couldn't get it up for longer then five seconds. The secret is to get a cheap, one dollar one like we did, cause those things soared. We barely even had to help the kids other than unwind the string.

They held on good and tight and neither one of their kites ever hit the ground.

It was a lot of fun!

That is until we were winding them up getting ready to leave.

Brayden wanted to do it herself and in her attempt to wind it up she accidentally let go of it and the wind carried it away.

In this case it doesn't fit with the parable cause that thing wasn't coming down. I ran after it as fast as I could with the limited footwear I had on. I came so close to catching up with it but it lifted over the fence high into the air. It didn't get far before it got caught on somebodies tree in their backyard as you can see in the picture below if you look closely.

We had one extremely broken heart and a few tears were shed.

But nothing that playing at the playground couldn't fix.

Good thing it was only a dollar!