MASSIEL DAVILA
Have you ever flown during spring break?
It sounds like a great idea right? The kids have a week off school, we can take a trip together! The whole family! It’s a great idea, to make the most of the time, not letting it slip by. For those who are fortunate enough to afford it, they can make something memorable happen with their family.
Spring break. Looked forward to by students all the way up to grad school.
As you have had the same idea, so has the rest of the spring breaking world. I discovered that as I arrived at the airport. School trips. Families vacationing. And for the rest of us it was a trip that made up an average month of work, it wasn’t our first flight, some of us had lost the wonder.
It’s easy in the unavoidable time pressure coming and going from airport to final destination to think that you are the only person flying.
I have to catch flight AC8298 at 7:50 with service from Edmonton to Saskatoon!
Only I do, the unspoken but implied tension.
But as I sit here, with 60 other passengers I see that it wasn’t only me. There were hundreds of us trying to get from Edmonton to somewhere, anywhere. The masses that we are can get frustrated at the delay, at the one person at the bag drop off counter, at the four closed security lines.
But as the Bible verse I read on my phone while trying to remain composed amidst the throngs points out, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:1-2)
Set your mind on the things above. Above the yelling airline employee. Above the long line at Starbucks that prevents you from getting your tall decaf coffee misto with caramel drizzle.
If you look high enough above the press and stress, you see the beautiful moments of humanity. Where kindness has overcome our need for ourselves.
The delighted exclamation, “You want to come with me!?” from a little sister to her favorite person on the planet, her big brother. The eager looking traveler, sitting clutching her boarding passes with pigeon toes, giving away her high level of adorability.
The tender request, “I’ll hold your stuff grandma, you go first.” The appreciative response, “You don’t mind dear?”
“Not one bit.”
I may have missed it all if I was looking at the earthly things.
The things like minutes left, space for my suitcase, missing my flight. Important realities that cannot be ignored, but not so great that they would stop me from asking, how would Jesus see all of this? If looking for him helps me see past the drama, than look for Him I shall.
I will try to set my mind on the things above.
I’m glad I had the time to read that important nugget this morning in the airport, it made all the difference when I got into the plane to learn that I had a most unusual seat, at the very front, facing all the other passengers.
I’m glad that I was not focusing on the earthly things as I sat beside the open door to the plane, with an unobstructed view to the brisk Alberta sunrise. Given enough time I was able to see the faces of my fellow passengers, sleeping, reading and marvel that for some, their resting face is a smile.
I wondered what they had set their minds on as I traveled from home to home on this beautifully ordinary day.
Massiel Davila is a pastor at College Heights Seventh-Day Adventist Church.