Some of you know that my youngest daughter, Maggie, is heading to Vietnam this semester for study abroad. When I am asked by folks, "What does Maggie want to do after college?" I half-jokingly say, "She wants to save the world." Maggie has a passion for trying to make things better - especially between people of different cultures. I am interested to see what she will end up doing, but I believe that, in her own way, she will end up helping to make this world a better place for all of us.
Her flight was this past Monday morning. We thought we left early enough to get there with plenty of time to spare, but for some reason the traffic heading south on 400 was unusually slow. It took us an hour just to get from our house to the North Springs MARTA station! We had not planned to ride on MARTA, but after seeing the traffic, we decided it was our best option. At least we knew how long the ride would take.
When we finally reached the ticket counter, Maggie tried to check in with her passport. She needed to check her enormous bag filled with four months of all you need to live. But the check-in screen said she was too late to check a bag. At that point, one of the airline employees came over and repeated that we were too late to check a bag. He said Maggie could not fly out until the next day, at best. (I can't tell you how difficult that would have been.) He then asked if she had any liquids packed - which of course she did. Her only option was to pull them all out and try to check her bag at the gate. She pulled the liquids out, ran through security, and somehow boarded the plane with only minutes to spare. Yesterday I got a message from her -- after 24 hours of travel she had checked into her hotel in Vietnam.
So my message today is this - thank you to everyone who was praying for Maggie. Your prayers worked!
Prayer for Today
Gracious God, you invite us to share the large and small concerns of our lives. While we know that all things work together for the good of those who love you, we are especially grateful when our prayers are answered in ways we can see right now. And give us patience to wait for your answers to our prayers when they are not so apparent. Amen.
