Hey ya’ll! Okay, so my last post said “I’m planning to write an update in the next few days,” and well, umm, that was in January. Lol. But, am I going to feel guilty about that? The Julie of 2009 would be bogged down with heaps of guilt for my bad bloggy behavior. But the Julie of today says, no way Jose! I have decided that I am only going to write when inspiration hits me and I get the undeniable urge to put words on my computer screen. Believe you me, I have tried and tried to force myself to write, and I’ll tell you what. IT DOES NOT! WORK! Whether it’s this blog, or the book that I have been working on for a few years, I am learning that when I put pressure on myself to be creative and write, it just ain’t gonna happen! So, to the many of you who have asked me “How’s your book coming? You’re still working on it, right?” I want to say, “yes.” However, I am no longer in a hurry like I used to be. There is no deadline, and I am letting go of the voice in my head that used to tell me, “Finish your book soon, or you have failed!” (Seriously, ya’ll. Abba Father has been teaching me so much about Himself, and about myself lately, it’s crazy. It’s amazing how deeply He can speak into my life when I have the time to pray and reflect. That’s one advantage of having a quiet, low key life.)
All right, so let’s change the subject before I start preaching a sermon and getting too deep on you. First I want to tell you that I think there is a mosquito in here with me. I really do try to love all of God’s creatures, but those little blood thirsty critters fall under the “difficult to love” category for me. So, if you suddenly start seeing a bunch of random letters in here, just know that it’s probably me trying to administer a little tough love. (Whack, whack!)
Have you ever been traveling somewhere and your trip didn’t go exactly as planned? Yeah, me too. In fact, my dear Mom and I had one of those days last week. The two of us decided to go to Missouri to visit our friends during Spring Break. Now, these are not your average, run-of-the-mill, every day kinds of friends. These precious people have been our closest allies since I was about 3 years old. They are listed under the heading of “Friends that are more like family.” I always marvel at Abba’s amazing plan. As I think about how He so skillfully and lovingly puzzled us together, my heart just bounces with joy. The cool thing is that my mom’s best friend Jan, and my best friend Tiffany, are also mother and daughter. And Tiffany’s daughter, Alyssa, is like a neice to me. So, we’re all connected in a deep, amazing friendship, and when we are together, we just turn into one big, giggly, incredible family. We try to visit AT LEAST once a year, and possibly more than that if it’s at all feasible.
Okay, so we have driven to Missouri in the past, but this time we decided to fly because we didn’t have as much time to travel. We figured that a half a day trip in the sky would be easier than a twelve hour trip on the highway. We figured wrong. It ended up taking us 16 hours to get from Houston to Missouri. Nope, not kidding. But, don’t worry. My darling Mom and I are almost always ready for an adventure. Now, I do confess that on days like this, there are moments when our sweet, smiling faces don’t look so sweet and smiley. We have our weak moments too, so don’t entertain any goofy ideas that Mom and I are perfect little angels. We are regular earthlings just like you. But, I will say that for the most part, both of us have been blessed with that annoying tendency to look on the bright side as we hold on to our glasses that are half full of sunshine.
As we sat on our first flight of the day that would take us to Denver, we had our seat belts securely fastened low and tight across our laps, and our seat backs and tray tables were in their full upright and locked positions. Our part of the bargain was complete, so we were waiting for Mr. Pilot Man to start up the plane and get our show on the road. As we sat parked at the gate, we heard a lovely beeping sound that made me think someone had forgotten to take the alarm tag thingy off their new shirt before walking out of the store. I hoped that it was a “normal airplane sound”, but my hopes were dashed as the flight attendant made the announcement that every traveler fears.
“There’s a problem with the plane. The left falangy isn’t working.” (If you’re a fan of the show Friends, you might recognize that reference.)
“We won’t know anything for at least an hour.”
At that moment, we knew we were going to have an interesting day. We had less than an hour layover in Denver, which meant we would most definitely miss our connecting flight. So, we had a lovely chat with a man named Rafael who told us that the next flight out of Denver wouldn’t be until 8:30 P.M. Now, I forgot to mention that this all took place at 7:30 A.M. So, anyhoo, to make a very long story short, we decided to take a 2 o’clock flight out of Houston so we would have less time to wait around in Denver.
Are you wondering if I have a point to this fascinating anecdote? I do, I promise. I’m getting there now.
So, as Mom and I started to realize that our day had just gotten very complicated, we were a teensy bit discouraged. But here’s the cool part. All of a sudden, I heard a little whisper in my spirit. It just felt like a little nudge. It said, “Your steps are ordered, Julie. Your steps are ordered.” My heart jumped as I considered what this meant. My Abba Father was gently reminding me that He always knows exactly where I am, and He is the amazing conductor of this orchestra that I am a part of. He is an expert at coordinating things, and He knows how to fit the pieces together just right. There may be some reason that things don’t go the way we plan, and sometimes there is a beautiful Divine appointment that He is organizing behind the scenes. Now, as I thought of this, I had no idea that my darling Mom was having a similar message whispered to her. She leaned down and told me, “God just said that I need to stop worrying about my agenda for the day, and start thinking about His.” Wow, yall, that blew me away.
So, as Mom and I made our way through the day, we became more aware of the people we were meeting, and the things we were doing. Even though we were a little frustrated at the fact that we would be arriving in Missouri at 10 P.M. rather than 1 P.M, I actually started to get a little excited as I wondered what my Papa God was up to. Out of no where, I just started thinking about all the good things that were happening on that day. First of all, we were not flying on an airplane that was broken. Or should I say, we were not crashing on an airplane that was broken. I don’t know about you, but “airplane crash” is not what I want written on my tomb stone. So I started saying thank you prayers for the wonderful mechanics who had discovered the problem before we left the gate, rather than leaving it as a surprise for us to discover at 37,000 feet above civilization. It’s my hope that I will never have to try out one of those fancy oxygen masks.
The next thing I thought of was, “Wow, look at all these people in the airport. Each of them has a story, and Papa loves each of them the same way He loves me. Maybe He and I can love on them together today. Maybe there is someone who needs a special hug from Papa.” Every person we encountered throughout the day made me wonder, “Is this the person?” So I started smiling at everyone, and hoping that somehow I could help make somebody’s day a little sweeter. We met so many friendly and precious people that we wouldn’t have met if our day had gone as planned.
We finally flew from Houston to Denver, and during our 3 hour layover, we treated ourselves to pizza and some TCBY. That almost made up for the crazy day we’d had! Yum! So, as we sat near the gate and waited for our flight to Missouri, I was still thinking about God’s message to us that morning. The day was coming to a close, and nothing too exciting had happened. Now, I do know that sometimes God does big things without us even knowing what He’s done. We won’t know the whole story until that day in Heaven when we will finally see all the little pieces that He’s been sewing together throughout these many years. Perhaps one small moment in time, one smile at a stranger, one kind gesture has the power to impact someone for eternity. Who knows? So I was completely at peace knowing that God was still on His throne, paintbrush in hand, putting little splashes of paint here and there to create His grand masterpiece. And all of a sudden…
THERE SHE WAS!
I knew it was her the minute she came around the corner. I just had this feeling that she was our Divine Appointment. I wasn’t the only one who noticed her, either. It was almost impossible to ignore this poor young woman with the three screaming children as she made her way through the airport carrying three gigantic pieces of luggage, baby gear, etc. She had a 3 year old, a 2 year old and a 6 month old, and it was very apparent that they were at the end of their rapidly fraying rope. The frazzled mother and her trio of yelling youngsters came to sit near us in the airport terminal, and we overheard her talking on her cell phone, telling the person on the other end what a terrible day it had been. My heart ached for her, and I knew Papa’s heart must have been aching too.
Mom and I boarded the plane, and a few minutes later, the mother and her 3 tiny girls came and sat in the row of seats directly in front of us. Seriously, yall! What are the odds? Now, the interesting thing for me was that I know God has been slowly changing me on the inside, because I did not have one negative thought in my head about this family! The old Julie would have thought, “Aw man! Why do we have to sit behind these screeching babies? Where is the father anyway? Can’t she do something to make them settle down?” But the only thoughts I had were thoughts of compassion and love for these girls. “What can we do to help? Is there anything in my purse that might help entertain them?”
Mom offered to hold the 6 month old while they all got situated, and the mother was very grateful. We tried our best to help them throughout the flight, and that included my dear Mom holding the tiny baby for the majority of the time. The two bigger girls took turns screaming, crying, unbuckling themselves, and standing up in their seats. It was total insanity, let me tell you. Part of the problem was that since it was a small plane, one of the girls had to sit across the aisle from her mother which made it much more difficult on them. The 2 year old was the crankiest, and her screams were probably heard by everyone on the ground as we flew overhead. Oddly enough, that little girl’s name was Serenity. No, I’m not joking. Her big sister’s name is Faith, and her baby sister’s name is Charity.
In the rare moments when she wasn’t telling her girls to sit down and buckle up, we talked to this poor mother and heard a little about their day. This young woman had never been on an airplane before in her life, and my guess is that after this trip, she will not voluntarily fly on another one! A member of her family had talked her into taking this trip to surprise her grandmother for her 80th birthday. For some odd reason, she had flown from Portland to Phoenix, to Denver to Missouri. That sounds like a rough trip for an average person, not to mention a first time flyer with three chickadees in toe! She was so overwhelmed and exhausted, and by the time we landed, she was in tears. We did what we could to encourage her, and as we said goodbye, she kept repeating, “God bless you!”
What strikes me most about this story is how much our Heavenly Papa really loves us. He knew how totally overwhelmed this woman was going to be by the end of her day, and perhaps she had been praying for some help. So, He rearranged a few little details of our travel plans so that Mom and I could be there for her, because her life is important to Him. Think about how differently things might have gone if Mom and I were not the ones sitting behind that little family. It could have been two grumpy old geezers sitting in those seats, and they might have said something nasty and made things worse. I’m so glad we paid attention to the gentle nudges and were not too busy thinking about our own troubles to look around and notice other people. I’m so honored and grateful that God invited us to work alongside Him on that day. It feels so incredible to take part in what He’s doing. Maybe, just maybe, He will invite us to do it again sometime.
Posted by Julie 
