One Sunday afternoon in late February, my family and I went out to brunch after the morning’s worship services. Upon leaving, my girls asked the hosts if they could have a balloon. Certainly they said – what color? So, my two youngest each were given a balloon, a huge helium-filled balloon. The balloons were filled so full that they could have popped at any minute.
I was so nervous on the drive home, because normally the girls like to play with the balloons in the car, which to be honest can be a little distracting for me when I drive – but on this Sunday I was really nervous because the balloons were just so filled with air that they could pop at any moment.
Well, we made it; we got home and all was OK – the balloons made it, and so did my sanity. But, we hadn’t been in the door for more than a few minutes before one the balloons just went bang – it was so filled up, without an opportunity to breathe out any of its air, that it just exploded.
I don’t remember whose balloon popped, but I do remember the girls were quite upset – their new balloons had just been given to them and now one of them was without. I didn’t want to see the girls so upset, so knowing that mom was going to the store, I asked her to get some balloons.
So, away mom went to Target; she came home and sure enough she had bought some balloons. I tell ya, those balloons didn’t stay in their package for very long. The girls got a-hold of those balloons, and inflated almost every single one of them… almost before we knew what was going on. We had to put the rest of them up – that didn’t last long either.
For me, it was so much fun watching them breathe life from their lungs into those balloons. Having all those balloons around had given them so much simple pleasure. But their joy didn’t just stop there. They took magic markers and drew faces on the balloons – how much fun is that? They had all of these “imaginary” inflated balloon people around that they had breathed life into. They played with those balloons all afternoon – in their room, in the living room, and then they took them over to share with their neighbors to play with them in community. See, these inflated balloons weren’t just for them; they were for the community to enjoy too.
Ya know – you, me, all of us together – we’re a lot like balloons. Now, we’re not made of rubber and we’re not made in some factory somewhere. But, we are flesh and blood and we have lungs in our bodies – and, in many ways, our lungs resemble what balloons look like – or the other way around. Anyway, we’re a lot like balloons in that we are created stuff – or substance if you will. But, instead of being made in a factory, we are made in the wombs of our mothers. And even though we’re given form inside our mother’s womb - it isn’t our mothers who makes us or forms us – but rather someone all together different. And with that, we are made in the mold of those who have come before us, and they before them, and so and so forth. If we go back far enough, there was once just one balloon, and archetype of sorts (or mold) that we are all molded “in the image of” – one perfect balloon.
And upon being created, in order to be made complete and brought into purpose, we need to be filled and breathed life into –much like a balloon. Just like this balloon here
And much like a balloon, we need to be continually filled and sustained in order to have form, life, and purpose – otherwise we’ll simply just deflate and be without form –and without purpose.
So, today, let’s look at the one who fills us up with His life – who Full-fills us and makes us complete; one who gives us purpose; one who sustains us – so that we can be enjoy life and be in fellowship with our maker and those he introduces us to in life. Please join me, and let’s look at what a very wise man once wrote about us being like balloons. If you wish to follow along, we’ll be reading from Isaiah 42:5-10 in the New Living Translation.
Isaiah wrote: God, the Lord, created the heavens and stretched them out. He created the earth and everything in it. He gives breath and life to everyone in all the world.
The first thing Isaiah says in this verse is that it is God who creates us [with his own hand]. See God decided well ahead of time to put form to human beings as his creation – he took a substance (the dust of the earth) – much like the rubber in this balloon, gave it form – like the round shape of this balloon, and then made it unique
The Bible says in Gen 1.27 that God created us in His image. So, it is like when God creates us, he draws his face upon us – just like we draw an image upon a balloon. But God didn’t just give us a face with His image; He has also given us a name. Not a birth name or a given name so to speak, but a name that calls us forth as being his special creation, His called children. Isaiah and the Apostles Peter and Paul wrote that God first chose us. The Bible writers called us the elected ones, which means the excellent, distinguished, chosen ones.
The second thing Isaiah says in this verse is that upon giving us a uniquely, divinely created form that God sets aside as being chosen, God breathes His life into us. God takes us as that uniquely created divine form made from the substance of this earth, and blows into it His Spirit – His life force –His divine wind. And by blowing his divine Spirit into this beautiful form, not only are we given life, we are given purpose.
But, we need to ask ourselves, what purpose is that to which we are given? Are we just formed and given life from God’s Spirit: so we can just float around, or is there another reason? Let’s look at what Isaiah continued to write to see the answer:
I, the Lord, have called you to demonstrate my righteousness. I will guard and support you, for I have given you to my people as the personal confirmation of my covenant with them. And you will be a light to guide all nations to me. You will open the eyes of the blind and free the captives from prison. You will release those who sit in dark dungeons.
Now, when Isaiah wrote this he was writing to the people in his time – the people of Israel. He was telling them that because God formed them, put his face on them, and breathed life into them, and called them out as special, that they were to fulfill a purpose.
Their purpose was to live with God in wonderful, harmonious, and perfect relationship, and then to go and love other people and invite them into that same wonderful, harmonious, and perfect relationship with God and them. But, they didn’t live fulfilled lives, much to God’s sadness.
So, while this passage is about God’s purpose for Israel, it is also a prophecy for the mold God sent us. This passage is a prophecy about the Messiah. It is prophecy that foretells of the coming Christ Jesus who would live the perfect full-filled life. This passage speaks of the one who was to be the first balloon so to speak – to live a life so filled with God’s Divine Perfect breath, Spirit, and Essence that He would live the perfect fulfilled life for others to be just like.
See, while Jesus was not created by God, the Father sent Jesus as the first balloon to earth to live a perfect fulfilled life. Jesus is the mold – the prototype for you and me. You and I are balloons created with the same image that is on Jesus’ balloon – we are created and breathed life into by the same Spirit that came upon Jesus and flowed through him.
My friends, God is so faithful that He didn’t just create us as random balloons that he blows into with just the air of this earth; God is so faithful that He has created us in the image of his Son, Jesus Christ, and he breathes into us continually with His Spirit.
Now, that was a bit of a diversion, but a needed one. A needed one because God says through Isaiah that we – being in the likeness of Christ, molded and chosen by God, and given divine breath – that He (God) will guard and support us. God will hold us close.
God does this to give us comfort, so we feel, understand, and know that we are connected to him, that we are protected, and that we just won’t be left to be blown away by this world. Because if we have any fear or hesitation that God will let go of this string
If you truly believe, feel, and know that you are guarded and supported, you can go forth – you can live out the purpose God has molded you and breathed into you to live.
That purpose is to love onto others – to spread around God’s joy, to sing his praises and to breathe God’s spirit of praise back to him, and onto others. But you first need to believe that God has given his life to you – as his creation – as a balloon he has molded, put his face upon, and has given breath and life to you.
But, some of you here may not believe that we have been molded, formed, and breathed life into by a divine being – that maybe our being balloons is just a random thing. If you don’t believe that God has breathed life into you and now sustains you, you are like a balloon that has never been inflated to become a full and filled balloon. If that describes you, then consider this teaching today, ponder it, and seek God. He has molded you, drawn his face upon you, and wants to inflate you with his Divine Spirit. Seek him today to be fulfilled.
And, some of you here today maybe like a balloon that was once filled, but then tied shut. See, in time, if a balloon is crimped off permanently, cut off from God’s continual divine breathing, it will spiritually wither away and die. Some of you in this room may be in a state of spiritual withering. But, the beauty of a balloon is that it is elastic – it can bounce back and be re-inflated. Allow yourself today to be inflated by God’s Spirit – become the balloon God desires you to become.
Lastly, let us be happy today – for we are alive – we have been given breath and life in the Lord. As Isaiah wrote in verse 10, “Be filled with his joy – sing songs of new praise. Sing a new song to the Lord! Sing his praises from the ends of the earth!”
So, let us all today, go home and be like these balloons
