When my children were young, they loved brightly colored helium balloons. But sometimes either accidentally or purposely, they’d let go of the string. There they’d stand, with tears in their eyes, watching their precious balloon fly high into the heavens until it disappeared from sight.
When that happened, I’d tell them a story.
“Don’t cry,” I’d say. “God’s up there. And you know what? He catches every balloon you let go of. He’s keeping all of them just for you. Someday, when you get to heaven, you’ll get every one back.”
My children are older now; so am I. But we still believe God’s saving our balloons for us.
And I believe God catches all our balloons too — each one we let go of. Only we don’t have to wait until we get to heaven to get them back. The best and most perfect of our balloons, the ones just right for us, He gives back as soon as we’re ready to accept them. Sometimes, He gives back better ones than we let go of.
— Melody Beattie, Beyond Codependency, p. 243