Ponderings

As I mentioned briefly at the end of my last post, we had hoped to catch a space-a flight out west to visit my dad's side of the family last Saturday.  At the last minute, the flight got moved up, and so we weren't able to get there in time to catch it.  And since then, there hasn't been another flight to Travis, so that little plan is a no-go for right now, anyway.  We may try in a few months, if we can avoid the whole spring break rush of space-a travelers.

But the whole scenario was just befuddling.  I had been looking at flights for several weeks, but only out of Dover AFB, since that's where we caught the flight 2 years ago to Travis, and since its posts show up on my newsfeed almost daily.  There were really very few flights out in January, and then none in February.  I tried to look at McGuire's facebook page, since I remembered doing so 2 years ago, but I couldn't find it by searching.  I figured they probably took down the page, possibly for security reasons, and I didn't think much more about it. But then, last Thursday, a post from "Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst AMC Passenger Terminal" showed up out of the clear blue sky in my newsfeed, with this flight to Travis on Saturday, roll call at 1155!  Wow!  We were all so excited!  I kept checking the schedule, but to get to the page, I had to go to my "likes", and scroll down to where it's listed, since it still wasn't showing up when I searched for it (although I just tried again, and this time it popped up, which is weird).  We got all packed up and went to bed at midnight Friday night, after having called the terminal just to make sure nothing had changed.  To get to McGuire by 10:45ish for an 11:55 showtime, we needed to leave about 6:45, so I got up and checked facebook one last time at 5:45--only to see that the showtime had been moved to 7:00.  Since McGuire is about 3 1/2 hours away, there was nothing we could do except be disappointed.  In fact, even if I had woken up and checked right around 3:00, when they posted the change, there was still no way we could have gotten there in time to get checked in and park the van a mile away in long-term parking, so clearly it wasn't meant to be.

But why did the Lord allow us to get our hopes up?  I mean, why bring the flight to our attention?  I had already pretty much given up, since there had been no flights out of Dover.  It actually brought me back to last year, when Nathan didn't get the USAFA appointment.  Why get us thinking that was the way the Lord was moving, since he had gotten 2 congressional nominations, plus the early West Point appointment.  Obviously Nathan is doing fine where he is, and knows he is where he is supposed to be, but still . . . it makes me ponder.

I don't, of course, have any answers--sorry!  But Mike did preach a very applicable sermon Sunday on John 11:1-44, the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead.  Why did Jesus wait, allowing Lazarus to die?  Obviously Jesus valued more than Mary, Martha, and Lazarus's temporary comfort.  He is committed to giving us what we need most, which is a vision of God's glory in the ministry of Christ, as he acts through our circumstances, so we can come to greater faith through our circumstances.  Not getting into a particular college or missing a flight can't really be called suffering, by any stretch of the word, but when we do suffer, the cross is ultimately why we have hope.  God sent his son to die for us while we were still sinners.  Jesus didn't come just to weep impotently and offer us a temporary physical extension of our lives.  He came to save us for eternity.

I still don't know why we weren't in Oregon this past weekend.  But I do know that the God who did not withhold his only son will not withhold any good thing from us, and I can rest in that, even when I don't understand.  And we're all still praying for an airplane to work out maybe in April!