“Mommy,” asked Miah. “Can we go to the playground now ? I fed my rabbit.”
“Just let me finish these dishes, Miah,” replied Mother. “Go get Beni and we will all go for a short visit.”
Miah ran to get his little brother. Soon they were both waiting beside Mother as she finished the dishes. She dried her hands and they all walked to the park.
The park playground was a lovely place. Mother could read or write letters while the boys played on the swings, slides, climbing bars, or the log playhouse. There were horse jumpers to ride on and old fire engine to pretend to drive. All of the land under the playground was covered with 6 inches of sand so all of it seemed to be one grand sandbox. Mother sat down on a bench to write a letter to Grandma. The boys took no time beginning to play.
After a while, Mother noticed that Miah was climbing up on the climbing gym and jumping off from various places. He would make giant leaps into the air and then tumble into the sand. Mother watched for a while until he went to the very highest place where there was a pole to slide down. “Surely he won’t try to jump from up there,” thought Mother. She got all ready to call him down when he jumped off, arms high. And crash! Down he fell into the sand. Mother gulped and jumped up certain he must be broken in a hundred places, but he got up, cheerfully brushed off the sand and went back for another try.
“Miah,” called Mother. “Miah! Come back here, please.”
He ran straight over.
“Honey, you can’t jump way up there, you’ll get hurt.”
“I’m fine, I’m experimenting,” he said. “I’m just doing what Daddy said.”
“What was that?” Mother sounded a little anxious.
“Daddy said that if you ever get an idea for an invention, you should experiment and never give up until you’re sure it works.”
“What are you inventing?” asked Mother.
“Daddy said that man can’t fly because he’s too heavy. Well, I’m still little so I can’t be too heavy, so I’m trying to see how far up I have to get so when I jump off, I fly.” He gave Mother a big smile, sure she would understand and headed back to the playground climbing bars.
“Wait a minute,” called Mother. “You still weigh too much.”
“What! I don’t weigh very much, Grandpa said so.”
“Honey, birds have hollow bones, and are specially made to fly. Your bones are solid, you haven’t got wings. You have even got feathers.”
“I could get some from Grandpa’s henhouse,” Miah said hopefully.
“Honey, you’ll just have to wait to Jesus comes and teaches you to fly. Then you’ll be fine.”
“But when will that be? I want to fly now.”
“Maybe so, but you’ll just have to wait,” Mother said. “If you want to jump from the lower places, that’s okay, but don’t jump from the top anymore. “
Miah sighed and went back to play with Beni.
“Beni, do you know I found out something else we can’t do until Jesus is back? We can’t fly.”
Beni looked up from the sand snowman he was making. “It’s okay,” he said. “When Jesus comes, it’ll be like Christmas. We can’t have our Christmas presents yet, even though I know where Mommy hid them, but when the time comes, we’ll get them. And when Jesus comes, you can fly.”
“I guess you’re right,” Miah said. “I do wish he’d hurry. Now, would you like me to show you how to jump?” he asked Beni.
“Sure, come on!” Miah smiled and both of them began to climb up on the playset.
“Jumping is fun,” laughed Beni.
“Flying will be too,” Miah said. “You just wait and see.”