INSPIRASUNS

Yesterday I made the trek out to Scottsdale for our annual conference. I sat down early in the morning, like at 3:00am, to spend a little time with Father before I left. I asked a simple request in that morning prayer, “Father please keep me safe as I travel, and if you could make it uneventful that would be even better”.

Well my first flight from FL to Chicago was indeed, uneventful. No issues at all, sweet! I grabbed a coffee at Midway and my flight boarded even a little early. I sat down in an aisle seat towards the front and organized myself to knock out as much work as possible over the next 3.5 hours! Things were going quite well!

The flight attendant did the usual announcement, “Flight will be completely full, every seat is taken”, you get the idea. Both seats next to me were open when I looked up to see this sweet older lady saying they needed to sit towards the front. I motioned that there were two seats next to me. The flight attendant helps her over. It was at this point that my day took a crazy turn…

The sweet lady said over and over again, “Thank you so much, I need to sit near the front. I’m so sorry, we were late because our wheelchair didn’t come on time. Oh and my husband is really skinny, he can sit in the middle seat.” I told her no problem and stood up to let her in to sit near the window. This is when she looked at me and said, “Oh no, I need the aisle seat. I’ll be back and forth to the bathroom and I don’t want to inconvenience you by crawling over you. Really, it will be ok, my husband is skinny and you’ll have plenty of room”. Boom, frustration immediately set in. I was not offering my aisle seat, I simply said there were two seats open near me. I explained that I needed to get some work done, taking out my laptop and such. To which she replied, “Oh that’s ok, just leave your bag here and I can help get it out for you.”

Things were not going well and I was not a happy camper! I looked up to see her tiny husband, (he was indeed really skinny), coming down the aisle. I grabbed my bag and moved over to the window seat. He made his way into the middle seat and she plopped down in my coveted aisle seat. Right then she looked at me and said, “I have something for you. You’ve been so nice to us. I always carry something with me to give to people to say thank you, oh and I guarantee you don’t have one of these”. I politely responded thank you but that wasn’t necessary. She was having no part of that… “Do you ever have trouble opening jars?”, she asked. I replied again, that she really didn’t need to give me a gift. She reached into her bag and gave me what looked like a handmade dishcloth. “My friend makes these, and they are great for removing lids from jars”. It was the size of a small dishcloth and the center is the rubbery material. It was actually kind of cool 🙂

I thanked her for the gift and turned my head to pout some more. Her husband at this point was trying to fasten his seat belt and was struggling. She was trying to help, so I reached over to lend a hand. We got him settled and he laughed and said in a little broken English, “I’m too much trouble”. I couldn’t help it, we all laughed together.

Right after this, she called the lead flight attendant over and gave her 5 of those cool jar remover thingy’s, and said, “Please give these to your crew as a Thank You for helping us today”. The flight attendant looked at her and was visibly emotional. “Thank you so much, this is so incredibly sweet of you”. That was when I felt Father elbow me in the side. You know like when you were a kid and you would say something stupid and your best friend would elbow you in the ribs… I could almost hear Father say, “Wake Up”!

Just a few days ago I typed in this little blog about how our seniors deserve better. How do we need to take care of our seniors, and show them the respect they deserve? Really?! Ya that was me who said that.

I immediately looked at the situation differently. This sweet little couple had done nothing but show thanks for helping them and yet I was ticked off because I couldn’t work the way I wanted. We started to talk and I learned so much about them. Susan and Mario, they have been married 56 years, he is from Peru originally. This cute little couple sat through take-off and landing holding hands. We helped Mario make his way out into the aisle to the restroom mid-flight. While he was gone, it was at that point that Susan told me, “95, he’s 95 years old”. What?! I told her he certainly didn’t look 95. When Mario returned we got him settled back into his seat and once again played the puzzle game with the seat belt.

I glanced over at them with about an hour to go in the flight and they were both asleep. I couldn’t help but smile and said a prayer to Father thanking him for helping me to see the gift of this wonderful couple. I asked for forgiveness for my selfishness and thanked him for helping to open my eyes.

As we started our landing, we chatted some more and I asked if I could take a picture. Of course, they said. When we landed, Susan stood up and said, “We’re going to let you out while we wait for the wheelchair”. As I started my way out we said our goodbyes wishing each other well. Susan thanked me again for helping them, and I simply said, “No Susan, thank you for helping me today”.

Fast forward to the baggage claim area. My bag was taking its time coming out. I saw it down the conveyor belt as it made its way around I noticed another bag right near it. I had seen that bag before, it looked just like the carry-on that Susan had. I leaned over to grab it because I saw Susan and Mario making their way toward me. I was laughing and so was she as she said, “Look, Kim has my bag”. Then another elbow in the side… SUSAN was the one in the wheelchair, not her 95-year-old husband Mario.

God blessed me incredibly yesterday. Take time to truly see people, to listen, to understand. Take time to learn about people and to laugh with them. It’s just that simple.

Sorry for the lengthy little blog this morning, but I just felt the need to share the whole story. Say a small prayer for Susan and Mario this morning, they are here in Scottsdale attending the funeral of a family member.

1 Corinthians 13:13
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.