Blue Balloon

The Lord is good at symbolism. I already explained my position that God is the ultimate author, and for someone who considers herself a literature enthusiast (or one who would be if she could find the time) it's fun.

I was a bit sullen yesterday - everything that I'd been fighting off all week hit me yesterday in a well orchestrated ambush - and the fact that I had to drive to work in a gray, gloomy down-pour wasn't real encouraging. Twenty-five minutes into it, though, as I was getting into McHenry, a fairly large, blue balloon dodged the truck in front of me and bounced along down the side of the road, keeping pace with my car for a moment.

Watching it out the passenger window I was amazed, first, that anything could bounce in that kind of weather. BAM! Condemnation. The enemy started accussing me of giving in to this little bout of depression and not letting the joy of the Lord be my strength, etc. Wonderful, now I'm sad and in sin - this is going to be a great day.

My second thought - because now I'm just embittered - was that a really dramatic effect would have been to make it a red balloon. Gottcha on that one, God. Then I realized that not only was the environment unpleasant, the balloon itself was blue ... but still bouncing. He was right there to hold me: don't feel bad for being a little down. You can have joy any time you want it, but if you're tired and overwhelmed and you just want to sigh instead of smile it's okay to cry on My shoulder - I won't call you a bad Christian, or your faith weak. It's okay to be a little blue when you're getting rained on, just keep bouncing - be faithful in your duties and passionate for your God - and you'll be fine.

The rest of my day was miserable, but I feel alright about it.