If you have never been close to a sky lantern, it is difficult to understand the sheer beauty and wonder that these graceful paper lanterns can inspire as they gently float into the air. A popular option for birthdays, weddings, and special events, they seem to carry a message of hope and the transformative power of love wherever they go. In one case, the power of a sky lantern became tangible, uniting a man with a grieving child he had never met. Here’s what happened, according to Today.com.
The Sky Lantern
Who knows exactly what was going through Steph’s mind the day she launched her sky lantern? We don’t know how old she was, where she got the idea to launch the lantern, or even exactly what happed to her father. It seems likely that he passed away, and the sky lantern was her final good-bye to him. But all we know for sure is that at some point, Steph sat down and penned the following words on the wax-coated paper of her sky lantern:
Love you Dad
Miss you so much
<3 Steph
She then lit the elegant sky lantern and sent it on its way. Perhaps she imagined it traveling ever up, up, into the heavens, winging its message to her beloved father. Or maybe she wanted to believe that it would travel forever. In any event, she likely never could have predicted what happened next.
The Arrival
Matt, a busy father of three daughters, wasn’t thinking about grief or sky lanterns or messages. He was thinking about how hard it was raining, and how much he had to do that day, when he noticed what appeared to be a plastic bag at the end of his driveway. It wasn’t until the rain stopped and he had dropped his girls off at their various activities that he went to investigate. That’s when Matt noticed the handwritten message, and realized that the item wasn’t actually a plastic bag, but a wax-coated paper sky lantern.
Matt kept the sky lantern with him as he finished his day’s activities. He wondered who Steph was, and what her intentions were for the lantern. He also thought a lot about his own daughters, and what he would want another father to say to them if he was no longer able to say it himself. Slowly, Matt began to realize that the lantern’s finding its way to him might have been its own sort of answer from Steph’s dad.
The Letter
Matt decided to pen an open letter to Steph, in hopes that she would see it and find a reply from her own father within it. Again imagining what he would want someone to say to his own daughters, Matt told Steph that her dad has always loved her, and will continue to do so for all of eternity. He stressed how proud he is of her, and gave her some advice on how to live a good life and surround herself with love. Matt closed with a reminder that her father’s love is reflected in the loving people around her, and that throughout her life, she will also be a reflection of that love.
No one knows whether Matt’s open letter ever found its way to Steph. But it is clear that the graceful sky lantern, winging its message of hope to a departed father, was intercepted by the power of love to connect a father with a grieving child who was not his own. In its special way, that humble sky lantern helped Matt remember his own priorities and bond with his own daughters a little more deeply. And everyone involved will benefit immeasurably.
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