Miracle on the Hudson
I was on my way to work and picked up one of those free Washington Post Express papers they hand out at the metro. Front page had a picture of the plane that landed on the Hudson River. It was one of those weird surreal feelings you get when you see something you don’t see every day.
“The captain said, ‘Brace for impact, because we’re going down,” Kolodjay said. He said passengers put their heads in their laps and started saying prayers. He said the plane hit the water pretty hard, but he was fine.”
This paragraph caught my eye only because when faced with death people became religious again. The saying “there are no atheists in foxholes,” though cliche, becomes the norm. I wondered if anyone complained after the landing… “I’m going to be late for the meeting” or “I’m gonna miss my connecting flight” or “how am I going to find my luggage?” I’m sure some felt this way (I’ll probably one of them) but I’m also sure the majority were glad just to be alive.
When my flight is delayed for two hours, I complain and demand a complimentary meal with my flight… but when my plane crashes and I make it out alive, and even though I’ll be stuck in whatever city for the day, I thank my God and my maker for saving me. There’s a disconnect somewhere in our thinking. It seems only when we are placed in a situation where we face our own mortality do we acknowledge that there is something far greater than us… when faced with the mundane two hour delay we take to the route of complaint and grumbling… “I demand my rights” or “this is not fair” or “I don’t deserve this.”
Our thoughts and our lives should be lived with the same attitude of thanksgiving. This life is on loan to us. We think we can do with it however we please or we live it however we want… but we are not the ones in control… God is. If we realize that God has given us this time for a reason we would probably not waste it on complaining and grumbling. We would rather thank God for the two hour delay… that’s two extra hours to be thankful for this gift we have. We would thank God for saving our lives not because that’s all we have, but because there’s more time we have to glorify him.
Will I remember this the next time I face something that messes up my schedule? Probably not… But it is good to have reminders like this…
Westminster Shorter Catechism Question #1: “What is the chief end of man? Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.”
Or as the Apostle Paul says “for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Life is fleeting, but God is forever.
Related posts:
