by Margaret D. Mitchell
Week of March 2, 2008
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. ~2 Peter 1:3
One day, while working in my former job as a flight attendant, a woman boarded my flight and stopped cold, just inside the passenger door. I sensed something wasn’t quite right, so I approached her gingerly, and I asked if I might help her find her seat. She didn’t respond, so I asked her if she had a boarding pass. With this, she burst into tears and buried her face in my left shoulder. “Indeed,” I thought. “This is one whom God has sent.”
The Lord had instructed me, more than a year earlier, to begin to spend time in His presence before working each trip in order to prepare me to receive divine appointments that He would bring to me on airplanes. Up to this point, He had sent all kinds of people with all kinds of needs. All for whom, He wanted me to pray and share my faith. I had grown pretty accustomed to reaching out, not knowing what to expect in advance. Oftentimes, I was shocked at the circumstances passengers would share with me, and I was always awestruck at how God would show up. The situation that was now before me would be no exception.
As I held this crying woman in my arms, I prayed silently for the Holy Spirit to guide my words and actions. Almost immediately, I sensed Him prompting me to seat her in first class. Amazingly, the entire front row of first class was available. I seated her in a window seat and reached for her tote bag to place it the overhead compartment. As I took the bag, I could not help but notice a large envelope of medical x-rays. I walked into the galley to make the woman a drink, all the while praying, “Holy Spirit, tell me what to do, tell me what to say.”
After the plane took off, and I served the other passengers, I returned to sit beside the woman. I asked her if she would like to talk. She nodded, and she began to share that she and her husband had traveled from Montreal to Florida in search of a new home. She said that she had had pneumonia before their trip and that her husband had developed a cough while in Florida. She suggested that he visit a doctor. When he did, the doctor diagnosed him with lung cancer and informed him that he had six months to live.
And now this woman was flying home to Montreal, as her husband was driving their car back with friends. She was overwhelmed and had no one else to reach out to her in that moment. As she shared her circumstances, I sensed the Holy Spirit prompting me to ask her whether she attends church. When I asked the woman this question, she paused, and then she replied, “I used to, but I stopped going when my first husband and my son both died.”
Gulp! Suddenly, my heart felt a deep burden for this woman, and I asked her if I might pray for her. She nodded again, and I took her hands in mine and led a prayer. I sensed the Holy Spirit prompting me to give her a message. And so after I finished praying, I said to her, “I believe the Lord wants you to return to church so that He can help you through this.” The woman wept, and my heart was deeply touched because of God’s deep love for her.
Indeed, sometimes sharing our faith doesn’t necessarily mean leading someone to salvation. Sometimes it means simply leading people back into the arms of Jesus, who is big enough and loving enough to handle it from there.
I never knew who would walk on board my airplanes and stand before me with needs unknown to me but known unto God. One thing was certain, whatever they needed, Jehovah Jireh could indeed provide for them. And I wanted to be in position to be used. Are you ready and willing for whomever and whatever God will divinely bring to you if you ask?
