By Linda Porter Carlyle
Trevor Paul Monroe had an idea. It was such a brilliant idea that even he was dazzled by it. He needed permission for one little part of it though.
Trevor stuck his toothbrush back into the cup beside his tube of toothpaste. He spread his lips wide and checked the mirror to see if his teeth looked clean. He wondered if all dentists were as picky about their children’s tooth brushing as Dad was. He sighed. Probably.
Mom was in the kitchen supervising Ben and Brad while they washed and dried the supper dishes. Trevor was glad that he didn’t have to do dishes with his big brothers. They took forever to get the job done. He was glad that he and Dad were a team on his dishwashing nights. Dad worked fast, and he always washed.
“Are you going to the grocery store?” Trevor asked Mom.
“In a few minutes,” Mom replied.
“Can I go with you?” Trevor asked.
Mom looked at him strangely. “Did I hear you correctly? Did you ask to go with me to the grocery store? You don’t like going to the grocery store!”
Trevor grinned. “I need something,” he explained. “And can I invite Joseph and Mac and Hannah over tomorrow afternoon?”
Trevor told Mom all about his great idea in the van. So on the way to the grocery store, Mom stopped at the party supply store. Trevor picked out a silver balloon with a colorful rainbow and puffy white clouds on it. It was perfect! The clerk filled the balloon with helium and tied a white ribbon on it.
Back home, Trevor called his three friends. “Come over tomorrow at four o’clock,” he told each one. “And don’t forget to bring a helium balloon! I’ll tell you then what we’re going to do with them.”
By ten minutes after four the next afternoon, G.M. had dropped Joseph and Mac off, and Hannah had also arrived.
“What’s up? Mac asked. ‘What are we doing?” She had brought a bright metallic red balloon that sort of matched her hair. It had a picture of a rooster crowing on it.
Hannah’s balloon bobbed above her head. It was pink and covered with flowers. Joseph’s balloon bounced at the end of its string. It was solid yellow, and on one side was a big happy face.
“I got this really great idea while I was brushing my teeth last night!” Trevor began. “You know what Pastor Chuck said in Sabbath School about sharing our lesson this week? He said we could blow up a balloon and write the memory verse on it and then let the air back out. And we could put the balloon in an envelope then and give it to somebody. But I thought it would be really awesome if we wrote the memory verse on helium balloons and just let them go outside. We won’t know who gets the balloons, but maybe God will make sure they get to the right people!”
“That’s such a good idea I wish I’d thought of it!” Mac exclaimed.
Joseph and Hannah completely agreed. “We should tell the whole class about it on Sabbath,” Hannah suggested. “Maybe other kids would like to do the same thing.”
“If the balloons float up high enough,” Joseph said, “they could be blown for miles and miles! Somebody really far away could find them!”
Trevor handed out his mom’s black permanent markers. Everyone carefully printed the memory verse in big letters on the back of his or her balloon. “Nothing can hinder the Lord from saving,” they wrote. “1 Samuel 14:6.” Then they went outside.
“It’s not very windy,” Hannah said. She sounded disappointed.
“That’s OK,” Joseph reassured her. “It’s windier up high, I think.”
Since the whole thing was Trevor’s idea, he let his balloon go first. It sailed up, and up, and up, and began to drift toward the east. Everyone watched it until they couldn’t see it any longer at all.
Then Hannah let her balloon go. It also sailed up, and up, and eastward. “I hope they all don’t end up in the same place,” she said.
Mac let go of her balloon’s string. It seemed to glow as it rose higher and higher in the sky. They all watched it until it disappeared too.
Then Joseph’s balloon climbed into the air. The happy face seemed to smile at the whole world. “I wonder where they’ll go,” Joseph said softly.
Mac clapped her hands together. “We should have prayed about that!” she exclaimed.
“It’s not too late,” Hannah pointed out. “They’re still up there somewhere.”
“I’ll pray,” Trevor volunteered. “It was my idea.”
So the four friends bowed their heads and prayed that God’s word would come back to earth in just exactly the right places.
