This summer I helped facilitate a Grief Support Group. A few days ago we had our last meeting. As part of it, we wrote a letter to God or the person we lost.
Then we tied our letters to balloons, said a prayer, and let them go into the early evening sky.
Beams of light slipped out from behind a cloud as if God’s fingers were reaching out to catch those small symbols of our hurts as they floated away.
It reminded me of what Max Lucado said in his book When Christ Comes, “Each of us must release the hand of one we love into the hand of one we have not yet seen.”
Tears streamed down faces, hugs were exchanged, and we walked back into the building lost in our thoughts of someone close to our hearts but yet so far out of reach.
Several Grief Support Groups happen each year and they always finish with this ceremony. I can’t help wondering where all those balloons end up.
There’s a verse that says God keeps our tears in a bottle…
I’d like to think He’s started a balloon collection too.
You have collected all my tears and preserved them in Your bottle!
You have recorded every one in Your book.
PSALM 56:8 TLB
Writing this post reminded me of the video 99 balloons–one balloon for each day in the life ofan amazing little boy named Eliot Mooney. His parents go to my church and his story has touched thousands of people around the world. If you haven’t seen it, click here and get out your kleenex.
