My granddaughters love trampolines and bouncing pillows. Despite the difficulties of standing and walking on these, they love to bounce and jump and appreciate the heights they can reach thanks to the trampoline’s springs.
A trampoline consists of a strong fabric sheet connected by springs to a frame and is used as a springboard and aid to acrobatic and gymnastic exercises. It’s totally unlike the solidity of a normal floor.
My youngest granddaugther, aged just two, is unable to bounce without the aid of the trampoline. She has not yet learned to jump of her own accord. She’s got the knee-bend movement off pat, but her feet don’t yet leave the ground! Her ‘bounce, little bunnies’ (possibly her favourite song) looks cute and there’s plenty of jigging in her actions, but no technical bounces or jumps yet. One day it will all click, and she’ll be off!
Some of us used to bounce but now seem decidedly earth-bound! Life’s circumstances and troubles leave us feeling careworn and without much desire or reason to bounce. We lack enthusiasm and zeal. We need the ‘bounce’ of the Holy Spirit in our lives, giving us an ability not simply to survive life but to thrive, to overcome. God enables us to flourish, even in a dry and weary land where there is no water. He is able to refresh us and add a bounce to our step today, for the joy of the Lord is our strength. (Neh 8:10)