Of Trampolines and Turn of Events

As the kids in our family have gotten older, we have begun getting rid of all of our childhood toys. Not just the little dinky ones, but the big expensive ones too. First my dad tore down the tree house that he had built when we were little, because it was getting old and the wood was rotting. I was sad to see that go, even though I didn’t really use it that much when I was younger. Funny how you seem to miss things only once they’re gone, isn’t it?

            A few weeks ago my younger brother took apart our trampoline in the backyard, in order to give it to a family that would put more use to it than we did now. That trampoline had seen a lot of memories made in our family – such as broken wrists, birthday parties, and ice storms. But now it’s gone, and there is only a bare patch of grass that signifies where it once stood. I have included a picture, wonder of all wonders.

            The significance of this illustration is that I noticed how the grass did not really grow under the trampoline because it was not getting enough sunlight. Now that the trampoline has been removed, we hope that the grass will grow and our backyard will be more evenly green.

            Sometimes God takes something out of our life and we don’t really know why. Many times it may be something inherently good, but for the sake of conforming us more to the image of His Son, the Father has deemed that we have had enough of something. As I said earlier, we do not usually realize the value of something until we don’t have it anymore. I probably would not have thought about jumping on the trampoline at all this summer if I had not known that we were going to be getting rid of it.

            In order that we might grow, God may take away things in our lives so that we may see how much and why we really value them. We will be able to see whether or not they have become idols in our lives – and we will have a check-up as to where our God stands in our hearts. God wants every part of our heart devoted to Him, and sometimes His removal of certain things from our lives is simply a reminder of that.