Imagine a baby screaming nonstop aboard your flight, while you are desperately attempting to get some sleep.
Add to that the fact that you are also trying to recover from about 4 hours of sleep and still have another 2 1/2 hour leg of your trip still ahead of you?
This was my situation a little over a week ago aboard a flight back to Houston from the Dominican Republic.
Truthfully, I was surprised at my own response. (That’s growth, y’all, lol!)
I mean you could audibly hear the sounds of the other passengers on the flight sighing loudly, whispering things under their breath, and some even openly complaining about this baby and his/her parents.
I can assure you many of them were probably also parents themselves, whose children were grown.
Somehow they had forgetten what it was like traveling with a child.
Perhaps they thought their rude comments would somehow help the parents…
And yet, there I sat seemingly unbothered…
Instead, I began praying for the parents and for the baby.
I prayed for the Lord to strengthen them, to give them grace and patience with their little one and peace to help them calm the baby.
I prayed that the baby would soon experience some relief, not because I necessarily wanted him/her to stop crying, but more so because I could only imagine the pain and misery s/he was in, but couldn’t vocalize.
I don’t have children, but I do have nieces and nephews.
I have friends with children.
I hear about the struggles of traveling with a young child or children.
I can even remember my youngest sister saying how embarrassed she was after traveling with one of my nephews for the first time and how he screamed “like someone was skinning him alive” (her words, not mine, lol) when the plane was landing.
It’s funny now, but it was no laughing matter at the time.
I can’t even begin to imagine how I would feel in this situation as a parent, if I am ever blessed to be in those shoes one day.
Then I began to think about our Heavenly Father.
And how He responds to our cries and pain.
Thankfully, He doesn’t shush us, get mad or frustrated with us when we cry out.
Sometimes we may not be able to vocalize the pain we are experiencing and all we can do is cry, hoping He will understand.
I am so grateful that He does understand without us having to say a word.
And He somehow brings His peace to the situation, calms our fears and anxieties and puts us at ease.
I became like Jesus on the plane that day.
Like Christ, prompted by the Holy Spirit, I began to intercede for those parents and that baby.
They will never know it, but that doesn’t matter.
Because someday, that may be my own reality.
And I can only hope and pray that someone will be Jesus on the plane for me and intercede.
Reflection:
What places and situations has God placed you in where you can be a representation of Christ, even without others knowing?
How will you respond?
Don’t miss your opportunity to be like Jesus for someone else today. I can guarantee someone around you needs it!
Lady In Waiting 222 