Holding down one end of the wooden swing with the biggest bear hug I could muster, both arms wrapped tightly as I attempted to be the anchor for those on the swing set…. their little bodies aimed for the stars as it seemed with every pump of their little legs.
Now it was my turn.
Our roles switched with much giggling ensuing as our spring time floral, rubber boots splashed happily in the muddy, blackened carved-out puddles at our feet.
Confident in the anchor skills of those that had replaced me, I aimed for the unseen stars with every pump of my pudgy little legs.
Every pump ever higher.
We were going nowhere, yet everywhere our minds could imagine beyond the stars in the midnight sky… We were free to swing… swing like we meant it.
This still, icy spring wind, stinging our little faces with every pump of our legs, seemed only to invigorate us more as we continued our quest for the title of “highest swing”.
Fast forward 45 years, my sweet little grandkids now occupying the wooden swings… the giggles, still present, the spring air, still looking to land some stinging bites on their little faces. The mud puddle still ever present, swirling continually with every splash of every floral rubber boot.
The Stars beyond the midnight sky….
Still the goal.
How often do we avoid something we were meant to do?… Meant to be?
Do the stars seem out of reach into a big midnight sky?… Does the stinging spring wind keep you from facing that which you were meant to do?…
Do the anchors, supports, people in your life feel far from adequate?… Do our floral rubber, Springtime boots not fit anymore because they are someone else’s?…. The swirling mud puddles beneath your feet, daunting?
What if….
What if we get back to where it all started….in the heart of a child.
Back to the garden…. Where we were to come as a child.
Use your God given gifts for a world that desperately needs them. Give them YOU. It’s still all tucked away in a child’s heart we all have deep down.
The stars are never the limit, the stinging spring wind… no match, the mud puddles… just an excuse to laugh… and laugh loud, armed with your own floral rubber boots.
The anchor(our God) , no worries… always trusted to the eyes of the heart of a child.
Today… Come back to where it all began. In the heart of a child.
Be brave.
Aim for the stars, no matter how far… Set your smiling face against the stinging spring winds… Stomp extra hard through those mud puddles… And know…
Your God… My God, is our anchor as He promises, no matter where your life may take you.
And above all….. Today… And always….
Swing like you mean it.
In the Moment 