I would like to share with you an excerpt from a poem written by Ann Weems. The beginning of it describes a four-year-old child that brought with her a balloon to church one Sunday. When her Sunday school teacher saw the balloon, she mockingly said to the girl, “We don’t bring balloons to church.” The poem ends this way:
Where did we get the idea that balloons don’t belong in the church? Where did we get the idea that God loves gray and sh-h-h and drab and anything will do? I think it’s wrong not to appreciate the joy in God’s world. I think it’s wrong not to bring our joy into His church.
What beautiful gift cannot be offered unto the Lord? Whether it’s a balloon or a song or some joy that sits within you waiting to have the lid taken off? The Scriptures say there’s a time to laugh and a time to weep. It’s not hard to see the reasons for crying in a world where hatred is so manifest.
So celebrate! Bring your balloons and your butterflies, your bouquets of flowers…Bring the torches and hold them high! Pint your feelings, sing your songs, whistle, laugh. Life is a celebration, an affirmation of God’s love. Life is distributing more balloons. For God so loved the world… Surely that’s a cause for Joy. Surely we celebrate it! Good news! That he should love us that much.
Where did we ever get the idea that balloons don’t belong in the church?