Back in 2016, we were living in Melbourne and had come to visit Adelaide over the Easter weekend. I was still in the early stages of grieving the loss of my dad to cancer and was trying to make sense of the world and what my ‘normal’ looked like now.

We were at a loose end on the Monday and my husband suggested we take the family to check out the Semaphore International Kite Festival.  To say I was a little underwhelmed by this idea would be an understatement, but kite flying was something my dad loved to do and to honour his memory we went.

This event seemed to be quite popular as parking was a little difficult to find, and we needed to walk some way to get to the foreshore where the festival was happening. As we were approaching the beach we saw a couple of interesting colourful shapes in the sky, but nothing too spectacular.  Once we got closer we could see that the ‘professional’ kite flyers were roped off from the rest of the population and separated to one side of Semaphore pier. 

As we walked out along said pier to get a better view I noticed that on the ‘non-professional’ side there were about 70 kites soaring high on the breeze of varying shapes and colours.  After five minutes, however, the few kites on the professional side were drifting to the ground and lifelessly lying on the sand. 

The wind had changed both direction and velocity and while the $15 kites were still active and successful in their efforts to fly, the $1000 kites were lying limp and useless on the shore.  I found this irony quite amusing, but the skies weren’t filled with the whole potential we had travelled to see and I was feeling disappointed.

Many in the crowd started to leave, and while that was a tempting option we chose to hang around for a little while longer as we could see all the potential flyers on the sand and tried to imagine what it might look like if they all managed to take flight.  We amused ourselves by checking out the market and walking to the very end of the pier but as we were making our way back towards the waters edge things began to change.

Ever so slowly, one by one, the professional kite flyers were able to get their kites up in the air.  They had to change the direction they were initially flying in, but with each new kite going up, others soon followed. 

Before too much time had elapsed the sky was filled with an amazing array of colour and movement and it was a breathtaking view to behold.  The public address announcer commented that on this, the last day of the festival, there had never been as many kites in the air as at that particular moment.

I stood watching those remarkable flying objects and thought fondly of my dad and his perseverance, particularly when we would go and attempt to fly kites.  I had tears in my eyes of joy at precious memories alongside the pangs of loss that I was not able to share in this moment with him physically by my side. I am pleased we persevered on that day and had waited for that ‘just in case’ moment. 

The bible has much to say about the act of perseverance and how it is an important character trait to possess, especially when things don’t appear to be going the way we would like. My go-to favourite would be found in the book of James chapter 1 and I have written about verse 4 multiple times already! What I don’t often do is include the verses beforehand.

“Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” (James 1:2-4)

Perseverance is built when you are tested, or facing difficulty in some way, and you do not give up. You continue to work, to hope, to wait, to pray and these choices increase the measure of maturity you will possess.

Imagine the blessing we would have missed if we had not persevered, but left earlier.  Imagine the disappointment if all the kite flyers had abandoned hope of getting their kites in the air and left early too.

I believe that God knew what I needed in that point of my grief journey and provided for me.  I am so grateful for His gift of grace for me on that day, and the persistence of my husband in insisting we go. What is it that you might need to persevere with?

Be blessed.