The Yellow Balloon: A Testimony
March 6, 2022 7:29 PM
Anno.Domini.144K
March 6, 2022
Many years ago, when I was a single mother raising my 6-year-old daughter without child support, God showed me how he was watching over us with a caring eye in the most unique ways. My daughter’s father had abandoned us before her birth, and he lived overseas so I could not receive any assistance from him. Yet I knew that God had not abandoned us. Little and sometimes large gifts would appear in unexpected ways. I would say to my daughter, “God is stepping in as your father. A much better one than any human could be.”
After church on Sundays, I would take my little my daughter to Friendly’s restaurant for brunch. Friendly’s often provided balloons of all colors—with the Friendly’s advertising logo, of course—to children. After finishing our meal, my daughter liked to take a balloon home. One day, we took a yellow balloon with us, and on the way home, I decided to stop at Walmart to go shopping. The balloon, filled with helium, hovered just under the roof of the car. Just as my daughter left her car seat, as she was climbing out of the car, she lost her hold of the balloon string. The helium-filled balloon quickly lifted up in the air, too high for us to grab the string in time. She watched in horror as her beloved balloon lifted higher and higher, carried by the wind farther and farther away. She begged me to go right back to Friendly’s to get her another yellow balloon. But I refused and told her we could get another one in a week’s time the next Sunday after church. Her eyes were filled with tears, but I would not give in to her pleading. Little did I know she would begin to pray to God to give her a yellow balloon.
The very next Monday morning, I returned to my office to start the day. I worked as a guidance counselor and an English teacher at a historic school with old buildings, so I had just had the old-fashioned office door fixed and its lock changed. The new lock had three keys, and I held all three copies. The only way to my office was through this door. I walked into my office and up to my desk with its computer. I was just about to sit down in the large black chair when I saw something that made me stop. Laying in the middle of the chair seat, right where I would have sat, was a YELLOW BALLOON. This one was different from the Friendly’s balloon. It had no writing on it, and it lay on its side because it had no helium in it, only air. In wonder, I picked up the balloon with both hands and sat down. I looked over at the window so see if I had left it open and the balloon had come in that way. But the window was closed in the locked position. My office was two floors up, and a human could not have easily climbed to the window anyway.
For a good ten minutes, I just sat there in the chair, holding the balloon in my hands in amazement. How had a yellow balloon materialized from nowhere, in less than 24 hours since the loss of the other balloon, placed on my chair so I would notice it and its divine message? I talked to God and thanked him for paying attention to even the little things that only a child would care for. I thanked him for His watching and seeing everything, and His kindness to my child and to me.
At the end of the work day, I brought the yellow balloon home in the car. My daughter was ecstatic. When I explained what happened, she was not surprised because children expect miracles. God had answered her prayers! Of course, this balloon did not escape, and stuck around for a good week of play.
People of God, if God is a good father to us, one who cares enough about a little girl to create a yellow balloon from nothing to increase her joy, what greater gifts does he have in store for His people! Increase your faith and expect miracles in the times to come.
