One windy spring day, I observed young people having fun using the
wind
to fly their
kites. Multicolored creations of varying shapes and sizes
filled the skies like beautiful birds darting and dancing. As the
strong winds gusted against the kites, a
string kept them in check。
Instead of blowing away with the wind, they arose against it to achieve
great
heights. They shook and pulled, but the restraining string and
the cumbersome tail kept them in tow, facing upward and against the
wind. As the kites struggled and trembled against the string, they
seemed to say, “Let me go! Let me go! I want to be free!” They soared
beautifully even as they fought the restriction of the string. Finally,
one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose. “Free at last,” it seemed
to say. “Free to fly with the wind.”
Yet freedom from
restraint simply put it at the mercy of an
unsympathetic breeze. It fluttered ungracefully to the ground and
landed in a tangled mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. “Free
at last” free to lie powerless in the dirt, to be blown helplessly
along the ground, and to lodge lifeless against the first obstruction.
How much like kites we sometimes are. The Heaven gives us adversity and
restrictions, rules to follow from which we can grow and gain strength.
Restraint is a necessary counterpart to the winds of opposition. Some
of us tug at the rules so hard that we never
soar to reach the heights
we might have obtained. We keep part of the commandment and never
rise high enough to get our tails off the ground.
Let us each rise to the great heights, recognizing that some of the
restraints that we may chafe under are actually the steadying force
that helps us ascend and achieve.
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