One to three inches of snow is not much of a problem for us native New Englanders but when some of those one to three inches of snow turn out to be ice all bets are off. Turns out the Southwest flight returning us home after Christmas was going to be delayed. Even worse, just getting to the airport over icy roadways was virtually impossible. We were stuck. It would be two days before we could catch a flight home.

A flight delay resulting in two more days with the grandkids was not a bad thing!

In fact, it was something we looked forward too!

Unlike another delayed flight back in 2010…

… and a lesson it taught about receiving all of life’s moments as a gift.

I was flying through through Dulles Airport in Washington, D.C. We were stuck. Bad weather resulted in the cancellation of the return flight to Knoxville. We were going to have to spend the night in the airport.

Trust me when I say no one was enjoying life right then! We would all have loved to be happy and overflowing with the joys of life, but we were stuck and what can you say about that? Well, one woman was saying a lot about it. She was virtually accosting the airline people with the fact that she needed to get back to Knoxville, and that she knew there were other airlines flying out, and that the Knoxville flight was being singled out for poor treatment because they hate Tennessee just like they cheated Peyton Manning out of the Heisman Trophy back in 1997!

Where did THAT come from?

Now I am certain this lady would have loved to be enjoying the beautiful life God had given her, BUT THIS AIRLINE HAD MADE HER MAD!

After listening for a while, I crept away from that angry confrontation. Sulking about being stuck in airline hell, I went and hid in the baggage claim. I found an empty wall I could slump against and started thinking about the whole situation.

And that’s when God inspired a thought.

“Marty,” God said, “don’t be like her! “

“Enjoy this moment! I’ve created it for you. It’s my gift to you.”

“Live into it!”

And as those words sank in, it struck me how misguided it was to say, “I want to be enjoying this moment of life God has given me BUT I AM STUCK IN A FREAKING BAGGAGE CLAIM FOR THE NIGHT.”

The better and truer thing to say was, “I want to enjoy the life God has given me in this moment, AND I happen to be stuck in a baggage claim for the night so …

… I’m just going to have to make it work!”

And all of a sudden, being stuck in a baggage claim was no longer a reason to NOT enjoy life, but was simply the circumstance within which my life was to be LIVED!

That night, I started noticing people – all kinds of people who also were stranded.

There was the very, very old couple. He was all bent over and clearly in pain. And she, with her obviously arthritic hands, was lovingly massaging his shoulders. I saw looks of a lifetime of love passing between them. What a gift to see it!

There was the family with the two little twin girls who were under a blanket together, laughing and giggling. One of them peeked out at her dad and said, “This so much fun! We’re going to stay awake all night long!” Those two little girls sparked memories of my own childhood and how adventure could be found in virtually any experience.

Then there were the two men leaning back in uncomfortable chairs, heads thrown back, sound asleep. One had a magazine over his face and when he snored the pages ruffled. The other had on a Lone Ranger mask. They made me laugh, and I took a picture of them and uploaded it to Facebook. Some of my insomniac friends LOL’d too!

A little old black lady was sitting all alone, sobbing. She spoke not a word of English, and I’m guessing she had flown in from one of the islands because she spoke French. No one could understand her language, but everyone understood her tears. Well, I know a little French – un peu – and was able to ascertain that her daughter was supposed to meet her but hadn’t come. She told me the daughter’s name. The security guards made some calls and moments later the daughter came rushing through the door and ran to embrace her mom. It was a beautiful moment of reunion and tears of joy freely flowed! The mom had gone to the wrong area of the terminal, but now everything was okay. The two of them walked away, arm-in-arm, babbling together in  French. I wiped away a tear, too, and felt really good to have witnessed such a beautiful thing.

God is so good!

And then, in the wee-wee hours of the morning, I saw a worker come along to clean a baggage carousel. She was a hard worker and scrubbed the conveyor until it was spotless. And then she did something amazing. She got up onto the conveyer belt, pushed a button, and started it up! And around the carousel she went, holding her dust rag on the top of the contraption as she traveled all the way around, automatically cleaning parts that you and I would never see! What inventiveness! What devotion! What a beautiful sight to see!

I enjoyed life that night!

What a gift it is that God gives us life and calls us to enjoy it and live it to the full!

The next morning, our flight to Knoxville finally boarded. The angry woman from the night before was still fuming and carrying on about how she was going to write the President of the airline and give him a piece of her mind. Thank God I didn’t have to sit next to her.

And what a shame that she lost twelve hours of life’s rich beauty by living into the angry “BUT” of her misfortune instead of the beautiful and blessing-packed GIFT she’d been given.

_____

So here comes 2016, another New Year! The days, weeks and months ahead will be overflowing with joys and sorrows, hopes and disappointments, challenges and opportunities. LIFE will happen to us!

I’m going to try to live into each moment, no matter how good or bad it seems. My experience is that every moment contains hidden meaning and yet-to-be-discovered gifts of God’s amazing grace.

But that’s just me!

How about you?

Happy New Year!

(The story about being stranded at Dulles Airport was included in a sermon I preached in 2010. If you are interested in a sermon context you’ll find it here.