I recently flew to DC with my daughter and husband. I never liked flying. Trusting an airplane and human pilot is not the same as trusting God. I must always keep a prayer on my lips as I fly. The song in my heart is usually “Under His Wings” or “Anywhere with Jesus I can Safely Go”. The experience I share below reminded me of our flight as Christians.
When we get in a plane, we are headed to a purposeful destination. We have a ticket to fly. We have a specified seat on the plane surrounded by others. We have one door to enter. Christian life is quite the same. The ticket is the gospel (Romans 1:16). The destination is heaven. (John 14:1-3)The only door is Jesus Christ. (John 10:7)The seat is our specific duty on this earth to love our neighbor and God with all our hearts. (Matthew 22:37-39)And we trust the Pilot of Heaven to get us there (Romans 3:21-25).
Due to a front moving in, on our flight to DC there were 80 mph winds. The pilot made us keep our seat belts on telling us there was expected turbulence as we would get closer to DC. Our plane dropped and rolled . When we were landing, due to heavy winds, the wing almost touched before the wheels. I wanted to blame the pilot’s inexperience because I didn’t know about the severity of the wind storm. The next morning as I learned about the extent of the wind damages around us, I realized the pilot was pretty amazing to land us safely.
It is the same on this trip to eternal life. We are warned there is a storm coming. God is telling us to keep the seat belts of trust and obedience to His Word on (Luke 6:47,48) Some of us know about the storm. Some are not even aware. As we get closer to our destination heaven there is more turbulence (Matthew 24). Some of us will want to blame God, the pilot for the bumpy trip and landing. Our plane may drop and roll causing fear (Luke 21:26) But the Pilot promises to take us through the storm and knows how to help us arrive safely (Revelation 7:14).