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Go Fly a Kite
Grab
Kite with string, or materials to make a kite
Blanket
Drinks and a snack
Go
On a dry, breezy day, take your daughter to shop for a kite or have a good time making one yourself. Several basic patterns for kites that use household items can be found online by typing “make a simple kite” into your browser’s search engine.
Travel to a grassy, open area. Stay away from trees and power lines. Have your daughter hold the kite above her head, downwind from you. While you hold the string, have your daughter let go of the kite as the wind catches it and it takes flight. This may take a few tries—be patient and see the humor in your efforts! Once your kite catches the air, gradually release more and more string to give it altitude. When it’s flying well, hand the string over to your daughter and give her the thrill of flying it herself.
Get comfortable on your blanket to get a better view of the kite in the sky. Share a snack together and enjoy the outdoors.
When you’re ready to finish kite flying for the day, have your daughter slowly wind the string around its spool to bring the kite in.
Grow
Did you feel a little jealous of your kite’s ability to fly? Wouldn’t the view from high up in the air be fantastic? It would be quite a rush to be caught up into the sky like a kite.
Can you imagine how the disciples felt when they saw Jesus ascend into the air to return to his Father in heaven? Acts 1:9–11 describes the scene:
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
Fathers are a powerful, yet largely untapped resource in our society.
Joe Kelly
Jesus says that when he comes back for us someday we will meet him in the air.
For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. Therefore encourage each other with these words. (1 Thess. 4:16–18)
For now we can see kites, clouds, and birds flying up in the sky. What a wonderful day it will be when we see our Savior coming for us in the air!
Dear Lord,
Thank you for giving us a day to look forward to when we’ll see you face-to-face. Please give us patience while we wait! Give us the courage to share the good news of your salvation so that the people around us can be with you too. We love you and can’t wait to see you! Amen.