What A Trip!
After saving for a couple of years, our small group from church all went on a cruise this past week. It was a great experience. Living in west Texas, New York City; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Saint John, New Brunswick; Boston, Mass; and Martha’s Vineyard were all wonderful places to visit. The weather was great, the seas were mild, the color in some of the places was spectacular, and the company was great.
Two twists to the trip bear comment.
Our return home was the typically crazy disembark challenge that many folks face. It took us longer to leave the ship and get our backsides into the airplane seat than it did to fly home — part of this was because we caught an earlier connecting flight and part of this had to do with a long wait in the bus and a longer wait in the security line. We were told by a television interviewer that a lady was angry that she couldn’t take her can of tomato juice through security and that she threw it into the scanner — bet she had a long trip home! But we made it safely and without missing flights, so no real complaints. The TV interviewer was looking for irate folks to blast the situation, but when interviewed, Steve in our group was kind and said basically, “I travel a lot and this kind of thing happens. It’s not the security people’s fault so there’s no reason to be ugly to them. If we can all be safe and get on our flights then everything is okay.” He did better than I probably would have done at the moment. I appreciated his response.
The other twist had to do with our first night. We had flown into New York and all pitched in and rented a limo for the night so we could see the city. It was a great idea and a wonderful tour. The weather was cool, but not cold and we got to see all the sights. It was truly a neat experience. On our way back, we started singing some church songs together — really old, zippy songs — and our driver started singing along with us. Turns out he is part of one of our sister churches in New York.
There is a special privilege living for Jesus and being a part of his family and celebrating his creation. This gift makes the world both a smaller place and also a more marvelous wonder. What grace it is to be one of the Father’s children!