(Reminder that this is adapted from a letter I wrote home over a decade ago. Still worth reading I think 🙂 )
TODAY
I get up at 4, share a Taxi to the airport with a german I just met from my hotel, am one of the first people in line and then am ushered to the side to wait for hours while they wait to see if there will be enough extra seats (along with many others … many with wait list tickets hadn’t bothered to get there names on ‘the list’ at all … hmm with all the army officials etc getting on in front of me maybe the manager hadn’t lied to me after all .. maybe there were 11 who had to take precedence) I hear a rumour that the increased security at the airport today is because the Dali Lama will be flying out of Leh later in the afternoon. I wonder if God is going to let the plane crash after all and is deliberately keeping me off it. I wonder if I’m supposed to tell someone about that dream. I decide to pray instead.
It feels like hundreds of people have gone by in front of me … dozens of wait listed passengers. I have once again already asked the man currently in authority twice if I am supposed to do anything other then sit and wait to be beckoned. He tells me “no” both times. A man with more authority comes out and uses his influence to get 3 or 4 of his friends through who were not able to get through before. He says something to the other man that I take to mean that one more passenger can be accommodated. I am resigned by now that I am not going and am making new plans in my head when the man looks at his list, looks up, and points to me.
They take my ticket, I get rushed through checking my bag, security frisks, etc. and end up in the room where all of the passengers are waiting to be allowed to board the plane. I’m taken outside where I identify my baggage to be put on board the plane, it is loaded and I rejoin the other passengers.
And we wait.
and wait.
and wait.
Finally an official comes into the room that we are waiting in and says.
“It is doubtful that we will be able to fly … the engineer just noticed that the wing flaps are broken and he is trying to fix them. If we do fly it will be at least another 15 mins.”
God answers prayer.
They serve us Chi and little plastic wrapped fruit cakes.
I go to the rest room.
As I come out I see that the passengers are finally being allowed to board ‘flight 448 to Srinagar and Delhi’. I look at my ticket to confirm again that I am on flight 448 .. yup .. I get in line and board the plane.
The flight is rather uneventful although I find myself thinking about crashing more often then usual on a flight :p strangely though the thoughts are not accompanied by any fear. I overhear a bit of the conversation of the passenger in front of me discussing his travel plans with the stewardess regarding visiting both Delhi and Srinagar. Finally we begin our descent.
I look out the window.
That is NOT Srinagar.
Have you ever had a prayer answered in a way you didn’t expect? I’d love to hear about it in the comments. Thanks for reading! Rusty
The Good Argentumware. 
Answered prayer is something that as an older Christian, I know He has promised, if I seek Him with all my heart. But, I know that from the beginning, when I received salvation, I had received what I had not deserved, that the Father in heaven had drawn me and wooed me to Himself and to Christ….truly an undeserved grace…over and above. And, because we often don’t know how to pray in our situations, we pray for His perfect will. Often this is done after we pour out our emotions, suppositions, and individual perspectives, and come to the issue of submitting to Him, in that circumstance. When He brings His Will to pass, invariably, it is better than our prayerful appraisals could ever figure out. “His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than ours…”
I think what I want to share, I will have to be careful how I present it.
I have been married to two vary different men. It was as the Lord ordained for me. Sometimes, I have found, a husband will value the wife’s input, and sometimes it seems it is worth nothing. In those instances in which my input has not been valued, I know that the Lord would want me to submit to the leadership over me. Sometimes, I have seen very emotional issues which could arise with children, which my husbands did not see to take into account. And when I took my concerns to the Lord, I have seen the Lord intervene for me, even in ways I would never have thought to pray for.
There was a time, when I had two children in diapers and my husband was working full-time and going to school full-time. I really needed the special time with him that he would be home, to help and to spend time relating to me as an adult, but he felt that he wanted to take time with the guys at school, playing basketball, and joined a team without asking my opinion or concerns. I cried out to the Lord, that He would show my husband what it was like to be home bound with two little ones, without much companionship. It was a simple prayer, for more understanding in our marriage.
How the Lord answered was not what I expected, but He got the job done. My husband went to his basketball game. He went up for a rebound on the ball, came down on his ankles and one of his Achilles’ tendon snapped and retracted into his calf muscle. He managed to drive himself home and when I saw his ankle, I immediately sent him to the Hospital Emergency room. The doctors scheduled a surgery for the next day, and our lives changed, radically! My husband had a full hip to ankle plaster cast for six weeks and then a knee to ankle cast for an additional six weeks. Tendons heal very slowly. The theological school where my husband had attended, had many stairs, no elevators or ramps for the disabled, back then.
The lab work that he did to make a living was doable, but the stairs at school were not doable for him, on crutches. Soooo!, when he came home from work, I would take my audio tape recorder and blank tapes and for twelve weeks I attended all of his classes, taping them for him, while he stayed home with two little ones in diapers. The Lord showed him more of my situation as a mother, and he grew as a husband and a father, at this time. The Lord answered my prayer.
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse in my past.
God give you great wisdom as a servant of the Lord, a husband and a father, that such things as my husband endured, physically, aren’t needed in your life, as teaching tools! Let us be quick to listen and slow to speak!
Love from
Mom E
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