“Flight Attendants, prepare for take-off.”
I was flying back home from a work trip in North Carolina. Legs crossed, faintly hearing how to use an oxygen mask, I start praying I get home safely. The airplane noise sounded just like the white noise I sleep with. Strange how the same noise that can calm me can also make me feel uneasy in a different environment.
Looking around, no one is really paying attention to the flight attendant, people are closing their eyes or putting away devices. A baby starts crying as the plane speeds down the runway. How many people are terrified of flying? I think to myself.
I lift up the shade from the mini window. Sunlight shoots through the aisle, blinding my eyes. Once my eyes adjust, I peer out the window to see the airport ground crew waving orange lights. As the airplane ascends, the world below begins to shrink. Cars transform into tiny, colorful dots moving along intricate lines. Houses start to form a painting of different shapes and colors. Once we are in the clouds the world below looks like a blur.
Are we all just meaningless specks in this gigantic world – coasting through life with no hope until we die and get buried in the ground?
You can believe that narrative. Or you can believe that God created you on purpose with a distinctive purpose.
I catch myself fixated on the clouds. Wow, you really created all this?! You really care about the families in these millions of homes and cars? I half ask/half say to God.
For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us. Ephesians 2:10.
I think about all the stories in the Bible where Jesus continually “sees” the hurting, the lost, the orphan, the widow, the marginalized. He doesn’t just glance at them, he sees into their soul.
He saw a blind man and healed him – John 9
He saw and knew the Samaritan woman needed living water – John 4
He saw Matthew, stuck as a tax collector, and called him to follow him – Matthew 9:9
He saw the woman who had been bleeding for twelve years and told her, her great faith has healed her – Matthew 9:22
Up here, flying through the clouds, I get a better picture of how big our world is- how big our God is. His love is immeasurable! He doesn’t see you as a speck in this vast world.
He SEES You!
