grace and hot air balloons...

so this weekend we went down to the overland park hot air balloon festival with two of our friends from cpx & fifty thousand of our closest friends...or at least neighbors. it was beautiful.
(click to enlarge)
the whole experience reminded me of the epilogue of rob bell's book, sex god. he shares the story of a couple who he had married. this couple had been through a whole lot of hard stuff together while they were dating, and hurt each other a good deal in the process. at the end of their wedding ceremony, they decided to release hundreds of balloons into the air to symbolize God's grace for each of them and the grace that they are extending to each other. a fresh start. the past is the past, and they are entering into a new thing together.

sadly, this couple ended up getting a divorce a few years later (wouldn't it be nice if real life was written by disney?). but that's not the point of the story he shares--the point is that we serve a God of second, seventh, seven-hundreth chances. a God of infinite grace. and he never runs out of balloons. i love that.