Part 2: “CONNECTED AS THE STRING IS LET OUT”

This past summer as I sat on the beach by the ocean listening to the wind, I decided since I no longer am able to sail due to health, that I would fly a kite & be bathed by God’s breath & see what spiritual lesson I might learn from it & what new life might fill my soul. In order to fly a kite, one needs to attach a string to it so that the wind might not blow the kite away. The skill of flying a kite in the wind is to gently let the string that is attached to the kite out slowly. As you gradually release the kite into the sky, though it is still connected to the string held by the person flying the kite, the wind will carry it into the sky as far & as high as you let the string out. The string connects you to the kite. As you let more string out the kite flies higher & faster into the sky & further into the wind. With the longer string attached to it, the kite gradually dips & soars in the wind as if it is absorbing the wind & coming to life. The wind goes where it will. It is fun to watch the kite as it swirls around in the air freely even though it is still connected to the stabilizing string. If you let go of the string the kite falls immediately to the ground, for there is no life without the wind, the very breath of God. The life of the kite, so to speak, is dependent upon you letting the string out gradually so as to free the kite to move around as it will in the sky, carried by the wind.

God our creator is metaphorically the string that connects with all His children to keep them from falling out of the wind. The kite metaphorically is the person. It is through His Holy Spirit that the life-giving wind, His very breath, brings the kite to life. God is the connecting Spirit so to speak, that is eternally connected to His children & though He lets them be free to dip & soar, He protects each of us from falling out of the wind & allows each one of us to dip & to soar into life surrounded by & carried by His invisible breath. He never will let go of the string that connects Him to His people. He is our protector & our shepherd, holding the connecting string to keep us from falling, filling us with His life-giving breath as we dip & soar through our various seasons of life.

As I sat on the beach this past summer flying my kite, watching the kite going higher & higher soaring & dipping in the invisible wind, it occurred to me that God, the Giver of the wind, though clearly connected to all of us in so many life-giving ways, through His grace allows us, even calls us, to be “string holders” for one another as His instruments on earth, opening opportunities for us to help one another take in His life-giving breath of the wind. Though God is the connecter of us all through His sacred covenant made with us, through all our seasons of life, He uses us to spread His love & life as we walk with one another carried & filled by His breath. As we continue on through our days it is my prayer that all of God’s people will take time to pause to open your hearts for yourselves & for one another & let the Spirit of God surround you, bringing you new life as you breathe deeply the new life-giving breath of our living God. AMEN

~Posted by Rev Kathryn Bindig, MDiv. MS; Pastoral Care Minister with assistance from Rich Muscatello; Director of Business Development & Strategy