March 02, 2009
The terminal
Flight 245 from Los Angeles to Seattle was streaking somewhere over the Oregon Cascades. I sat in the back row with my stepson Darrick, irritated that I had botched our travel plans. We missed our flight out of Orange County because I forgot to open a lousy email weeks earlier. The message, which I overlooked, announced that we had been bumped to an earlier flight.
A ticket agent at John Wayne Airport broke the bad news: our flight had already left. Our only option to get home that night was flying out of LAX. Alaska Airlines graciously re-booked us and we rushed outside to catch a taxi. With our flight leaving in less than two hours, our driver took us on a harrowing ride on LA's freeway system, traveling at speeds up to 90 mph. Traffic was unusually light and Speed Racer got us to the airport in about an hour. Relieved of $120 cab fare, we checked our bags, found our gate and exhaled. As our plane lifted from the runway I silently thanked the LORD for His protection and provision, and asked His forgiveness for my costly oversight.
Little did I know God still was working. My wife Alisa and daughter Brianne were sitting several rows in front of me. A stranger sat in the aisle seat next to my wife and I looked up several times to see them chatting. My wife introduced me to the passenger – a college tennis player named Joe – as I got off the plane. The student, a Christian who had converted from Mormonism five years earlier, was trying to return to school in Hawaii after participating in a Southwest tournament. Flying standby, he got as far as LAX, where he spent 24 hours waiting for a seat to open. Faced with spending a second night in the terminal, he caved in and booked a flight for Honolulu via Seattle. He purchased a ticket for Flight 245 about the time we arrived at LAX.
Joe shared his travel saga with my wife on the flight to Seattle, as well as the moving testimony of his Christian conversion. This young man loves the LORD. We landed at Sea-Tac around 11 p.m. but Joe's connecting flight wouldn't leave for another nine hours. Not eager to spend another night on the floor of a terminal, Joe gladly accepted our invitation to crash at our house. Joe is a serious student of the Word and we had a wonderful time of fellowship on the drive home. Our visit had several layers of ministry. Joe shared how his mother, whom his Mormon father divorced after she converted to Christianity, was struggling with abandonment and isolation. Joe asked Alisa is she would send his mother an email of encouragement, which Alisa did the next day. The last leg of Joe's journey was seamless. In the morning he hitched a ride with Alisa, who already had plans to drive our next-door neighbor to the airport. We received an email that Joe reached his destination safely.
Looking back, I marvel how God turned my blunder into a blessing. As our taxi screamed toward LAX the LORD was preparing a divine appointment. All for His glory.