I always pray when I get on an airplane. My prayer is for safe travel. After the plane takes off and we reach cruising altitude, I begin to pray another prayer. It starts when the flight attendant in the first class cabin shuts the drapes that separate first class from coach.
My prayer is please send someone else this time Lord. Please. In the past several years, God has chosen not to answer this prayer. “Here they come again! It’s the peanuts and pretzel patrol.“
Can you imagine having a business where thousands of times everyday you have your customers as a physically captive audience? You have the opportunity to feed them something as an expression of your gratitude for their business. You decide to give them a bag of peanuts or pretzels (rarely both or more than one bag per person). Why? Who made this decision? Do you know how this makes us feel? What sense does this make?
How do I get over my disappointment? Every time I get a bag of peanuts or pretzels on an airplane, I use it as an opportunity to praise God saying: “Thank you Lord for the nourishment only You provide that is so dynamically superior to peanuts & pretzels. I am grateful Lord that you nourish us from your love and abundance, no matter what the cost.”
Thank you Jesus for treating us like loved ones rather than expenses, burdens, nuisances, cattle or inconveniences. Approach the Lord today hungry for the nourishment that only He can provide. I am grateful that I am truly someone in your eyes. Ours is not the God who serves nourishment of peanuts & pretzels to the beloved. Be kind to flight attendants. They’re just serving what someone gave them to share with us. Pray for the airlines….and the people employed by the U.S. auto companies while you’re at it.
I adore this quote from C.S. Lewis:
“We are, not metaphorically but in very truth, a Divine work of art, something that God is making, and therefore something with which He will not be satisfied until it has a certain character.“
[i] C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, HarperSanFrancisco – A Division of HarperCollinsPublishers, (c) 1940, p. 34
