A year-and-a-half ago, just after deciding that I would try my hand at cross stitch, a form of embroidery, I stood in Hobby Lobby looking longingly at a kit with all of the supplies necessary to stitch the scene of beautiful hot air balloons passing above idyllic-looking homes. I took it home with me and soon discovered that it was too complicated to do on the first try at cross stitch. It is on my "things to do before I turn fifty" list. I also own a kit to make a scene of hot air balloons in latch hook. My home is on the flight path for a local hot air balloon company, and I have taken countless pictures of them sailing over my house. I even exchanged a short conversation with one of the pilots one morning. I absolutely love seeing a hot air balloon in the morning or afternoon sky.
I do not know why I thrill to that sight so completely. I have an abnormal fear of heights and cannot imagine going up in one. I suppose it could be because they represent joy and freedom, somewhere in the recesses of my mind. The passengers had nothing pressing to do that day, so they took a hot air balloon ride. They are soaring far above those of us ensnarled in traffic or locked in behind a stove with full dinner preparations in process.
Last night I had a very, very weird dream, given my pathological fear of heights (I stood on the ground wishing everyone well during the last two amusement park visits). In this dream, there was a group of people with parachutes trailing them. When they would get to a certain point in a meadow, the parachute would lift up and inflate. In my mind it seemed that the person controlling "lift-off" was somewhere over to the right, but I could not see them. Apparently they were looking for all of the rope-like apparatus on both sides of the parachute to be extended before they would (I do not know how) cause the person to lift off. My dream opened with me only one person back in this line of people continuously rising.I watched as the person ahead of me quickly rose. My turn came, and, instead of the terror and frantic turning back and peeling off the equipment that definitely would have happened in real life, I just had butterflies. My chute seemed to be working in the inflation stage. I do not remember the rest of the dream. I do remember thinking "I can just turn back if the chute doesn't look right at lift-off, and I WILL!"
The imagery is so obvious to me. I can go "up, up and away" in my spiritual life if I will only let go of all of my fears and fall back onto Jesus. If I will have complete faith in the One who has inflated my parachute, I will sail safely through any storm and land very gently in heaven. Others have done it (the person who quickly rose before me in the dream) and I can and will, too. Faith is the key. The good news is that I do not have to manufacture that faith on my own. It is the gift of God.
I do not know why I thrill to that sight so completely. I have an abnormal fear of heights and cannot imagine going up in one. I suppose it could be because they represent joy and freedom, somewhere in the recesses of my mind. The passengers had nothing pressing to do that day, so they took a hot air balloon ride. They are soaring far above those of us ensnarled in traffic or locked in behind a stove with full dinner preparations in process.
Last night I had a very, very weird dream, given my pathological fear of heights (I stood on the ground wishing everyone well during the last two amusement park visits). In this dream, there was a group of people with parachutes trailing them. When they would get to a certain point in a meadow, the parachute would lift up and inflate. In my mind it seemed that the person controlling "lift-off" was somewhere over to the right, but I could not see them. Apparently they were looking for all of the rope-like apparatus on both sides of the parachute to be extended before they would (I do not know how) cause the person to lift off. My dream opened with me only one person back in this line of people continuously rising.I watched as the person ahead of me quickly rose. My turn came, and, instead of the terror and frantic turning back and peeling off the equipment that definitely would have happened in real life, I just had butterflies. My chute seemed to be working in the inflation stage. I do not remember the rest of the dream. I do remember thinking "I can just turn back if the chute doesn't look right at lift-off, and I WILL!"
The imagery is so obvious to me. I can go "up, up and away" in my spiritual life if I will only let go of all of my fears and fall back onto Jesus. If I will have complete faith in the One who has inflated my parachute, I will sail safely through any storm and land very gently in heaven. Others have done it (the person who quickly rose before me in the dream) and I can and will, too. Faith is the key. The good news is that I do not have to manufacture that faith on my own. It is the gift of God.
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