Saturday, October 20, 2007

New Friend





I met a new friend a couple of weeks ago on my way home from Washington while I was waiting for my connecting flight in a large airport. I had a wait of several hours, the seats were all empty except for one just on the other side of my row and over about three or four seats. It was very quiet. Ernest and I smiled at each other a couple of times and then I shyly asked if he was also going to Michigan. No, he said, he was going to California. Our two gates were very close. We began visiting and something he said gave me courage to ask if he was a Christian! "Oh, yes", he said, "I'm a servant of Jesus!" Among other things, he's involved in Prison Fellowship. Well, as you can imagine our conversation became very interesting and even exciting at times! Near the end of our time he said, "You know, I missed my plane and I was so discouraged." Then he told how he was actually there while they were still loading but because of circumstances beyond his control he was not there ahead of time and his seat was given away! Now, he was waiting for the next flight and his status was stand by. He's a business man and needed to get to Calif. for meetings. Then he said quietly, "You know, if I had caught my flight we never would have met and had this very interesting conversation!" "And," I added, "I wondered why I had to wait so many hours for my connecting flight!" Our meeting was a God thing! We both agreed on that. Finally people began arriving for the next flight to Calif., then they began boarding, his name was called over the speaker and as he went to the check-in counter, I prayed, "Lord, please help him get a seat on this plane. He needs to get to his meetings." All of a sudden I saw him hurrying my way, waving his ticket, a big smile on his face. Then he hurried off to board the plane. "Good-bye, Ernest!" "Good-bye, Anita!" We may never see each other again on this side of life, but we're corresponding by e-mail and praying for each other and someday we'll be praising Jesus in heaven! Thank you, Lord, for meeting with Ernest and me. What a wonderful time we had together with You. Thank you for good God Times!

1 comment:

Kate said...

How interesting...he has an interesting job..you will probably hear some stories of a different kind from him.