I settled into my seat mere minutes before we were asked to buckle up and enjoy the flight. The whole thing reminded me of a letter I had written to my sister my first week of university. A country boy at heart, I detailed how I had gotten totally lost walking around in the ‘big city’ of Kingston, Onario and some of the ironic happenings that occurred as I tried to get unlost. My mother later told me that when Suzanna read it at home she laughed, shook her head and said “Honestly, how is that boy still alive?”.
I have to admit that as I review sections of my life since then … I sometimes find myself with the same reaction. As we were flying the next leg from Mumbai to Paris I contemplated my experience and thought about how many ‘coincidences’ had occurred in order for me to have chai with a lonely Islamic man. And then how many more had taken place to keep me from the legal hassle and missed flight due to the misunderstandings.
I thought about how much of a confirmation that was that I was in the center of God’s will. I then felt an uneasiness. What if things hadn’t fallen into place? What if I had been misunderstood, stranded or even imprisoned? Would that have meant I wasn’t in His will? Well … no, not necessarily.
“That’s really a good life lesson. I should tuck that away for years from now, when things don’t go smoothly but I’m still in God’s will.”
I’m sure that the “years from now” part of that sentence made God laugh out loud. Particularly because he already had a new adventure waiting for me on the Paris to Newark leg of my journey. One that, among other things, involved Homeland security and a young man in a crumpled khan suit with a four day old beard and goatee and multiple copies of “prayer guides” crammed in the outside pockets of his luggage.
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I think I’ll wrap it up there for now. Maybe later I’ll tell about how I eventually made it home to Canada. For now, thanks again for letting me share about this fun part of my naive youth.
God bless!
Rusty
The Good Argentumware. 