Dreams Do Come True!

I just returned from vacation and find myself pondering all that took place during those eight days of adventures and resting. I feel like a different person after the fact. That may seem like a strong statement, but I just think that's the power of rest and having life giving words spoken over you. It's been a long season of transition and refreshment is precisely what I needed. Thankfully, that's exactly what happened. There are many stories I could share with you, but the one I'm choosing to write about today is what's pressing on my heart most.

I flew stand by to California (another story in of itself) to visit three friends who are near and dear to my heart - Honey, Beena, and Sarah (as pictured above). We met last year while at ministry school in Redding, CA and like to call ourselves the Fantastic Four! We have many dreams between the four of us that involve us partnering together in various adventures. The dream we chose to go after this past week was to take flight in a hot air balloon over Napa Valley. We made our reservation in spite of the hefty price tag that came with it and the loss of sleep from rising long before daybreak...somehow we knew the value of this experience would far outweigh the cost.

There's nothing more exhilarating than knowing that your dreams are coming true! Although we were lacking sleep, we could not miss the excitement in the air during those early morning twilight hours as our car neared our destination. It was spitting rain a bit which caused us a little concern so we simply prayed and asked God to remove anything that would hinder our dreams from coming true.

We arrived at our destination and walked to the check in desk linked arm in arm with each other and with an expectation of good things ahead. We're all about documenting our adventures, so we quickly started snapping photos while we enjoyed some complementary coffee, fruit, and pastries. Honey had thought ahead and bought four packages of skittles for us to eat on the hot air balloon ride. It was symbolic of tasting the rainbow - the promises of God. While we waited, Honey fashioned a hot air ballon out of the skittles and her rainbow bracelet. It was so apropos!

After waiting quite a while and hearing someone from the hot air balloon company apologize for the delay twice, one of the pilots arrived on the scene. He started explaining that because they care for the well being of everyone going up in the hot air balloon, they take great caution when monitoring the weather and determining if it's safe or not. Unfortunately, that morning, their were reports of rain in our travel path as well as high winds that could propose higher risk than they were comfortable with. So in light of that, they had decided to cancel the flight. I could tell he was really sad to have to cancel in the delivery of his speech but I also knew that a wise decision had been made. To help ease our disappointment, he did mention that there was a golf ball drop from one of their hot air balloons at a nearby golf course and that we were welcome to go see the preparation for that balloon to go up and get pictures with it.

We let this news sink in for about a minute realizing this was our only chance for a hot air balloon ride that week because it was our last day in Napa Valley. We put our heads together and quickly decided that God must have something better in mind - in fact we declared He did right there and then not knowing what that would look like. So we decided to go to the golf course and see what would happen. Perhaps the fulfillment of our dreams coming true wasn't over just yet...

We followed the pilot's in their van to the golf course and saw the crew setting up the hot air balloon upon our arrival. We quickly greeted the crew and shared that our flight had been canceled and we were there to see the golf ball drop. Apparently the golf ball drop was a charity event for the rotary club. They had several bags of golf balls that they were going to drop over the balloon at 50 feet in the air and attempt to drop them in one of the holes on the green. The golf balls were numbered and whatever golf balls dropped in the hole were the winners.

The crew was really kind to us and encouraged us to take photos while they set up. We also asked if it would be possible to go up in the tethered balloon. One of the guys on the crew said he would ask for us and to stay close to the basket so that we'd be ready if it was possible.

While we waited, we took in the beauty of this massive balloon being filled with fire and wind with the mountains as the back drop and the green bed of grass laying underneath it. We lived fully in this moment capturing as many photos as possible of the balloon, of each other, of all of us together. At one point they let us go inside the balloon and took our photo for us - something that, from my understanding, typically has a $15 fee attached to it. But they didn't charge us anything. What a blessing!

It came time for the balloon to go up and the crew started asking people on the ground who were a part of the rotary club if they wanted to go up. No one wanted to arise to the occasion. Good thing the Fantastic Four was standing close by! They motioned us to come aboard and we did so gladly! We got to take flight after all! Not only that, but we were given the opportunity to partner with their community by participating in this charity.

We lifted off the ground together and rose to 50 feet above the golf course in the tethered hot air balloon...and then we dropped the golf balls over the side of the basket. In our hearts and prayers, the dropping of those golf balls was really a releasing of God's love over the land.

By the end, they were thanking us for helping them. And we just shook our heads and said "no, thank YOU!" Talk about a win, win situation! As Sarah said, "What's better than a hot air balloon ride? A FREE hot air balloon ride!"

So what's the moral of this story? Well, there's probably more than what I'm going to hi-light. But this is my personal take away. God is faithful to bring about the deepest desires and dreams in our hearts. When the circumstances of life don't look favorable for those dreams to come true, keep believing that God has something better in mind and is working to bring it about. Sometimes the fulfillment of our dreams looks different than we could have ever imagined (actually most of the time that's the case!) but it's always better and exactly how Papa God has masterfully and intricately woven the tapestry of our lives together to meet us where we're at, to rain down His love on all of His children, and to glorify Himself. I've been learning how to have expectancy for my dreams to come true - not expectations. It involves a good measure of faith and confidence that God's promises are true and will happen, and yet grace to hold those promises and dreams loosely for God to mold them accordingly to His good plan. Keep the faith my brothers and sisters - dreams do come true!