my floaty friend

I thought kids were supposed to play? have fun? I looked at my floaty friend, as I held the helium balloon by its weighted string on the MRT, on the walk home from one-north. On the train I had to hold it really short, like it wasn't flying away at all - I didn't think much of this at all at the time because it felt natural to keep a short lead since we were on the train. 

But on the walk home from one north, I passed some of the fusionopolis/galaxis/solaris office buildings, and one of the walkways was quite tight. And there were all these office workers on their way to the train station after work walking towards me, and also the walkway is open on one side but the other side is a neat row of bushes. I was happy to let my floaty friend loose after the MRT ride, but I had to reel it in again because I didn't want it to burst on the bushes while we squeeze past the office workers. So for its own sake. Only when I got to the Portsdown slope then I could really let it fly as high as it went. 

I thought of the song I'd written for Miriam on that walk before she left for Cambridge, when dad cried. little bird away you fly, up and up your going high...I wonder if she has all the words, we could record it with Tim! Anyway, the important question I thought of at the end was, ok training your child in the way he should go takes a village, and the string goes up and down, but what's our real hope eventually? That the balloon will fly up to heaven? We can't take it there ourselves though.

We can only let it go and trust the helium will get it there. Make sure it's got a sturdy shell that won't break with the altitude, and trust that when it seems like the helium has run out, the Holy Spirit will continue to lift you up.