The Soul of a Balloon

Today, I was at Little Gym, being the parent-on-duty for Jessie and her dance class. The lobby had a few parents and younger siblings, and one of them had a blue balloon, filled with helium, on a thin ribbon. The configuration of the room combined with the length of the ribbon made it just ever so slightly impossible for the child’s mother to be able to reach up and retrieve it after her child inevitably would send it skyward. After assisting with the first retrieval, I realized that this was a power struggle in the making and decided that I have plenty of parenting choices to make for my own kids, and taking on other peoples’ would be at best a path toward insanity. So, I ignored that particular balloon, but it got me thinking.

What is it about balloons that makes them so attractive to kids? Especially the helium-filled, egg-shaped kind? There’s nothing inherently “fun” about something that always rises up on you. You can try to keep it down, but if you sit on it or something POP.

There’s an immediate sense of heartbreak when you hear that noise. It may startle you, it may make you brace for the crying that is to come, or it just may make you wonder about why someone paid good money for the helium and flimsy piece of latex.

The other issue with balloons occurs when you’re outside and it gets away from you. When a child loses a balloon like this, tears will follow. It’s that feeling of “I had it under my control, and now everything is RUINED.”

It seems like that balloon is an apt enough metaphor for our soul and spirit, or at least whatever breath or gas that’s inside it is. Our bodies are the balloon, and eventually, we’ll expire, whether it be with a BANG or a slow leak. (Let’s put aside the entire “inhale the balloon and talk funny” bit. With this line of thought, we veer into Harry Potter Tormentors, and…. yeah.)

I want to take this in a spiritual direction if only because I’m a spiritual person. When we, like that child, try to hold on to that balloon and exert our control over it, isn’t that simply us trying to ignore God’s plan for us and do things our own way? We can tie a string so it doesn’t get away. We can stay indoors and let it hit the ceiling. We can do everything humanly possible to preserve that helium inside the balloon, and yet it will escape. It’s as if God’s plan for us, which we believe to be known by Him and not necessarily always revealed to us, is for us to let go of that balloon and trust that the wind will take it where it needs to go.

It’s so hard to let go. I want to control everything I can, because I think I know best, or at least I think I know how to at the very least keep myself somewhere safe. But those who call ourselves Christians really aren’t meant to be safe in anything except that God loves us.

So, today, I’ll loosen the grip on the balloon a bit. I may not be able to let it go completely, but you can only take one step at a time.

If you have some time, check out Keith Stewart’s message this week at Springcreek. It’s powerful.