A Little Girl's Prayer and the GOODYEAR BLIMP
Oct 15 '02
The Bottom Line God doesn't limit answered prayers to 30, 60 minute or miniseries time-frames. He does remember our heart felt prayers even when we have long forgotten.......
When I was young, I never quite fit. I always seemed to be just one minute too late to see the beautiful butterfly that landed on a leaf. I would just miss the gorgeous rainbow that was behind me, and when I would turn around, it would be gone. I would never quite understand the simple joke that everyone found so hilariously funny until the joke became so redundant, that no one laughed anymore. By then, there was noone to share the laughter with.
One day, I had become especially frustrated with this lot in life I seemed to be locked into. We lived in town and had a beautiful back yard. I was looking out the rear window of our house when I saw the neighbors and my family all staring up in the sky chatting animatedly.
I ran out the back door to see what the excitement was all about, and when I finally reached the little crowd, I looked up at the sky and asked what it was (hoping secretly that it was a UFO that my father always read about). I was told that it was the GOODYEAR BLIMP.
Wow! The GOODYEAR BLIMP! I had missed that sight the only other time anyone I knew had ever seen it and I was not going to miss it again. I looked at the sky, only to become extremely frustrated. I had forgotten to put on my glasses that allowed me to see sights from a distance.
I ran in the house, all in an uproar, searching wildly for my glasses. We had a large old Victorian home with LOTS of places for a 10 year old to misplace glasses.
After mowing through the house, leaving a path of debris strewn behind me, I finally located the little pair of brown framed glasses. I raced from the house, forcing the plastic frames over my ears.
When I reached the yard once again, everyone was talking and no one was looking up anymore. I looked and looked into the sky, but could see nothing. The GOODYEAR BLIMP was gone, and once again, I missed the thrill that everyone else was able to enjoy.
I hung my head down in sorrow. I felt so alone and so cheated.
Finally, I prayed to God and asked him to let me see the Goodyear Blimp so clearly that it would make up for all of the times that other people could see it when I was not able to.
**********
It was a beautiful autumn day. Our son, was 5 years old. I had the luxury of my own car. Despite the fact that it was old and very fussy, I was thrilled to be honored with transportation. When you are used to not having much, you tend to be greatly thankful for things that most people take for granted, or even complain about.
We had just moved into our home after two years of severe battle over the land. Unseen enemies fought us every step of the way to keep us from moving from our poltergeist infested apartment (I use the term loosely, as demons are demons, no matter how they try to dress themselves up) into our tiny little home on the top of the hill. After two years of phone calls to Washington DC offices, and miracles that moved mountains and achieved the impossible, my happy little family was at last in our home.
It was a beautiful autumn season. The food that we had to preserve for the winter survival was calling to me. I was so thankful to have a car for the time being, that I called to our son, and asked him if he wanted to go pick grapes for pies and jelly. He jumped at the chance and off we went.
The sun was shining and the intoxicating fragrance of the concord grapes was heavenly. I sang to myself as my little five year old ran up and down the huge vineyard rows cramming his face with grapes along the way. Life just could not be better. Being used to having constant weird and extreme challenges face us almost without a break, it was so blessedly wonderful to rest and enjoy God's delightful creation.
I smiled to myself as I popped some grapes into my mouth. The burst of sweet flavor overtook my senses and made me want to shout for joy at the goodness of God.
I was smiling to myself as I looked up at the clear blue sky dotted by fluffy white clouds. The wind was kicking up and the fragrance was exhilarating. I called to my son and finally located him by his grape-impeded voice. He came running back, and I was just thinking about how thankful I was for a normal day, when I saw the woman in the next aisle running pell-mell out of the vineyard in the direction of the parking lot.
I knew that the bees were pretty nasty right now, so I figured that she had probably been stung. I looked around for my son, thinking I should see if he was all right, and when I found him, he was staring up in the sky.
It was right then, that I saw the ground darken where it had just been doused with sunlight. I turned and looked up to see a very large dark thing heading right for us out of the sky.
I grabbed my son and ran as fast as I could out of the vineyard to hide behind the car. It was a LONG run, and the area around me kept getting darker and darker.
Breathless and in pain from the sudden burst of running, I held tightly to my squirming child as I saw the woman who had preceded me in abandoning the vineyard motioning to me to join her behind her car.
It did not take much convincing, and I dove behind her car quite frightened.
She was smiling at me and asking me if I thought it was great.
I looked back at the place where I had been standing previously, and in disbelief saw the words GOODYEAR so large in front of me that I thought I was dreaming.
Suddenly, I had visions of my husband watching the six o'clock news seeing the report of a grape vineyard up in flames after an explosion like the Hindenburg killed three people who were picking grapes. I wondered if he would even know it was us. I wondered how long it would be before he was told that we were dead.
I was in the middle of wondering if anyone would show up to our funeral, when a cheerful animated voice jerked me from my reverie.
"Isn't this AMAZING?"
I looked at this woman in disbelief. She was flashing pictures of this disaster. I wondered if camera film could withstand such an explosion so that there would be proof that I had been there.
"What an opportunity! Have you ever seen the GOODYEAR BLIMP this close before?"
She was actually grinning at me. What a sadistic woman.
I looked over at the GOODYEAR BLIMP which was now being tossed about violently by the wind. It was about 25 ft above the grape vines. There was a ladder hanging from the bottom. I could not see anyone in the compartment.
Oh great! He had abandoned ship and now we were surely going to die!
I was in the middle of my funeral again when I was rudely interrupted by that cheery annoying voice. Did this woman have no respect for the dead?
"I can not believe that God was so good to us to allow us to see the Goodyear Blimp like this. What a privilege it is! And I have photos of it. I can not wait to show it to everyone- they will never believe it"
Well, at least they would have proof of how we died. How could this woman be so positive about our impending doom? And to actually blame GOD for it. Sheesh.
The farmer who owned the vineyard had now joined us. He was standing out in the open not hiding at all.
I made a mental note to change the news report from 3 dead to 4 dead.
He was talking about some stupid football game that the BLIMP was going to for the Buffalo Bills. This blimp was a long way from its destination.
I had mentioned that it must have lost control and might crash. He looked at me as if I were a martian. That was not even a consideration in his mind. After all, it was the GOODYEAR BLIMP, and it had a football game to go to.
Sports fans are in such denial.
I still could not located a human in that compartment. The farmer just trusted that he/she was in there somewhere. Apparently, he must know someone from the retired munchkin cast of the WIZARD OF OZ who knew how to fly the BLIMP.
The blimp was hovering and rocking at about 20 ft above the vines and then with great effort it managed to turn and lumber away through the now gray sky.
I did not breathe easier until it had gotten far enough away that I figured not even the Hindenburg crash could touch us.
The woman next to me was still chattering about God and how special this all was, when I finally came down from my doom and gloom reverie.
Of all people to get trapped in possible doom with, I happened to meet up with a woman who understood the spiritual realm and had insights that very very few people have in the Lord. How amusing that God chose to have me with her when this happened.
We had the most fabulous conversation and then I went home singing because I met this woman. We had a couple of occasions to enjoy each other's company and spiritual insights before she moved away a short time after.
**************
It was about 7 months later. Spring had sprung, and I was trying for the umpteenth time to clean my house. For some reason, I have been tormented by my parents for being unable to have my house look perfect, and for some reason, the most unbelievable circumstances happen on a constant basis to make sure that it does not happen.
I had determined to clean up at least one room.
I had emptied all of the stuff from the room into the tiny hallway. My five year old son was amusing himself outside- or at least sort of.
I had blocked myself into a corner of the room, sorting through the stuff as quickly as I could. I REALLY wanted the house clean and in order. HA HA.
Every two minutes, my son would come screaming in the house that I had to come outside to see something as if it were an emergency.
I would leap over the hurdles of junk , trip and fall several times and then rush outside only to see a bug that I had seen a hundred times before. My son's eyes would be full of light and excitement. In my mind, he was merely a hindrance.
I would holler at him and then go back into the house.
After scaling the mountain of debris, making it back into the corner again, I would just settle into the cleaning mode, when my "little ball of energy" would come in screaming again that I had to see something.
After several trips outside, I refused to do it again. I told him to stay outside and NOT come in the house again for a long time. I slammed the door shut instead of leaving it open to see through the screen.
NOTHING was going to bother me.
About 10 minutes went by and the side door slammed shut again. The familiar thudding of feet came closer, followed by ragged breathing.
"MOM! You have to come and see this."
"No, Son. I am not."
"But MOM, you HAVE to come see this."
"Son, go outside."
"MOM! YOU HAVE to see this."
" LISTEN TO ME! I AM NOT GOING OUTSIDE ANYMORE. I AM CLEANING!!!"
He was begging me urgently.
I threw down everything I was doing and stomped over the piles of junk out into the hallway hollering about this being the last time or I was going to put him to bed.
My tirade continued.
"YOU HAVE TO LEARN TO AMUSE YOURSELF, SON. I AM GETTING SICK AND TIRED OF YOU CALLING ME LIKE IT WAS AN EMERGENCY WHEN IT IS JUST A STUPID BUG ..."
I stopped short as I swung open the door in a grandiose gesture.
I screamed as the words GOODYEAR filled up my entire doorway.
My five year old was jumping up and down with glee, and pointing.
I was in shock. The stinking thing was stalking me. What was UP with this thing? I watched it as it headed for the roof of my neighbor's house.
The mental news cast I had begun months previously was edited to change the location to a couple of rural houses destroyed and only two dead. Now it was after my house. The neighbor's house too.
I remembered the previous time I had been followed by this thing, and then recalled my friend and her camera. I ran to get the camera. At least I would have proof for our neighbor if it did destroy their brand new house - that is, if we survived the blast when it hit.
I snapped a whole roll of film on this thing. No one would ever believe that the GOODYEAR BLIMP was so close to me AGAIN in the same year. Lucky I had a whole roll of film. I did not think I had any.
We watched as the blimp made its way slowly back up into the sky missing my neighbor's house by only a few feet. No ladder this time, so I figured that the driver had not bailed out yet.
I was happy to have survived another stalking of this evil blimp. At least I had photos this time.
My son was delirious with joy. Another crisis had happened and he enjoyed himself tremendously. I was thankful that I did not have to finish planning my BLIMP-inspired funeral yet- at least not yet.
When you live the kind of bizarre life that we do, with constant weird phenomena happening to you as commonplace, it is easy to develop a certain sense of paranoia, and fatalism.
Well, at that point in my life, I was very concerned that this GOODYEAR BLIMP kept coming after me. I wondered how long it would be before the crazy thing did its job whatever that was.
I asked God what the heck was up with this stupid GOODYEAR BLIMP. I could not understand why even the GOODYEAR BLIMP was out to get me.
I was watching my son jump for joy in the yard when suddenly a little 10 year old girl came into my mind's eye. I saw her in her yard, glasses askew on her head, a tear running down her face because everyone saw the blimp but her.
I then remembered her desperate plea with God asking for a chance to see the GOODYEAR BLIMP up close- so close that she could not miss it- so that she could feel special too.
I looked down at my camera and saw that the film compartment was empty. I had taken photos with no film. That would have been upsetting, but I realized then, that this private showing of the GOODYEAR BLIMP was for me- no one else.
God remembered the prayer of a heart broken little girl and many years later gave her more than her heart's desire, and even blessed her little son in the process as well.
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When things get particularly difficult in my life as they are right now, it is so helpful to look back at the good times and the blessings that have happened in my life and my family's life. It tends to bring things into better perspective. Hope you enjoyed sharing one of those many memories with me today. Thanks for reading.
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