It’s Sunday afternoon. What a blessed weekend! Every single flight was delayed. As a result, I got a very late night ride for an hour with Lindsy Bailey, mother of six who has come through the fire and knows who holds her future. I got to sit up in the clouds in a holding pattern and remember how my nine-year-old grandson had, earlier in the day, told me of which weather pattern each type of cloud was predictive. I praised God for the beauty of the sky when the sun is setting and I am above the beautiful clouds. That doesn’t happen every day.
But I was late. As a result, I was extra thankful when a connecting flight was also delayed. And, as a result, I had someone fun pick me up at the airport in her pajamas. She reminded me of earlier times in our lives when the Word of God had guided us through a dark time in life. I love her.
The only thing for which I was a little early the whole weekend was the ladies day, itself. And I was so glad there was a minute for Brooke and Lori and Bekah and Scarlet and Becky and Remi and Coy and Leah and Willow and Katja and sweet special ed teachers and so many more. How can one tardy woman be so blessed?
Another flight was delayed and it gave me this wonderful chance to sit down in a rocker in the home of a dear old friend and reminisce and talk and talk until I felt like I’d been to a therapy session. We all need one now and then.
She dropped me at the airport to come back home, and faster than I could adjust, in my mind and itinerary, to another delayed flight, I was watching that flight schedule board change and change again, until there was no hope of making my connection to the home airport. Realizing I was going to be spending the night in either Springfield or Charlotte on Saturday night, I was rescued by Jim and Debbie Meinsen, who in spite of the fact that they were returning from an out-of-town trip, and Jim was teaching a Bible class today and Deb was leaving just after worship today to travel to be with her daughter and grandchildren (who are also my grandchildren) while their dad, Caleb, was away preaching in a gospel meeting…in spite of all that, they said “Yes.
Come on! Sleep at our house. Go to worship with us tomorrow. It’s potluck…then a two o’clock service. We’ll be there in 30 minutes to pick you up. Then we will bring you back to the airport after church tomorrow and you can try again.
SO I had a great room and bed and pancakes and sausage and eggs for breakfast. I heard three great lessons today and had a meal of barbecue and chicken and ham and potato casserole and broccoli salad…and I’m embarrassed to keep going! Then I had two hours there at the building to just visit with the Highlandville family. And I haven’t laughed so hard in a while. The family there includes a bull-riding judge who knows a lot about the Pentecostal religious conferences in the area that include sword swallowing, high swan-diving into ten inches of water, monster trucks and army tanks rolling over cars…and it was so funny, except it’s really not funny when people get that spiritually confused. It was interesting. All that conversation was prior to getting to talk to a young girl who completed an earlier Digging Deep study as a brand new convert. Her encouragement will be in my heart for a long time. She’s faithful and determined and trying to reach others in her family.
I would not have been able to meet her if it were not for the fact that my life was running late! While lamenting that I was not home with my family on Sunday, I realized that I was right there in a building into which I’d never been before with HIS family—MY family in Him. And it was an unexpected blessing.
I’m hoping these next two flights will get me home. If they are on time, I will walk in my kitchen door around midnight. I’ve already gotten a call from home saying there’s a three-year-old who is begging to spend the night with me when I get there. But, there may not be any night left to spend. Praying I get off the ground this time. But if not, who knows what blessings are ahead?
Maybe the best thing, though, is what I hear I may be missing at home. One of my sisters, who needs to come home to the Lord, is planning to do that today. I’m praying so hard that today is her day. Who cares if I am there? If she will just be right with the Lord, we will have forever together! Forever! He is so good.
He is SO good!
12:20 am update:
- I am home!
- The three-year-old is fast
asleep in the little bed in our window dormer. - Best of all, the sister who was astray is home, too, with the Lord.
It is late. But God does great things in His own good time!
It was the sweetest thing I’ve ever seen. I woke up pretty early on Saturday morning, and ELVES (full-sized elves!) were already outside my kitchen window and they had twinkly lights and wreaths and a giant Santa snow-globe, already in full motion beside my driveway. How do elves know these things?!…I mean that I had extra little people frequently visiting this fall…with visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads and a mammy that’s got cobwebs dancing in hers. Those elves knew that I had more visiting kids and chaos and less serenity and sanity than ever in my lifetime! And so there they were…James and Darren and Mandie and Hunter and the North Pole remote team, too…Molly and Jennifer and Brad and Jessica. (And maybe there were more. I mean who can accurately assess something so magical as the North Pole’s outreach mission?!)
Obviously, the afternoon did NOT hold enough hours to clean up all the messes I needed to remedy. I left that worship service last night as fast as I could when the last “amen” was said and raced home to cook my nuggets, pour my eggnog, pack more ice on the cokes and make the cider. I rushed in the kitchen door and started (I mean a big time jump!) to find PEOPLE in there just humming right along…there was my sister, Celine, taking the nuggets out of the oven. The aroma of the cider was already filling the house. The cokes were covered. Scotty, her husband, said “We can’t find the eggnog”….Where’s the trash bin?”…”Which door should I use to refill this cooler?”…”Where’s the extra ice?” And all of this, after he’d preached all day and filled all kinds of needs for many