“Winging Our Way Home”

It’s July 5, 2022 and were currently climbing thru 27,000 feet as we begin our flight home from Scotland via London. It’s been a great vacation. We were immersed with great hospitality, renewal of old friendships, seeing the wonderful beauty of Scotland, and actually celebrating the 4^th of July in a foreign country. The country of Scotland has made a major contribution to the growth and development of the United States from our early days, so they helped us celebrate with hamburgers & hotdogs, American Flags and some song, and of course a “wee bit” of their famous whiskey. 

Today is also our 53^rd wedding anniversary. This has really been an anniversary trip with vacation/recreation, and being renewed in our love of God and each other. We were blessed to be prayed with and over by good friends and to pray for some of them. We feel renewed in spirit and ready to move into our next years of marriage and love, and even our next phase of life.

Quick flight update. We’re now over the Irish Sea and up to about 37,000 feet. Glasgow is off our right wing. Fast forward a couple of hours and we’re out over the Atlantic and at 39,000’, moving at 553 mph, and it’s -72degrees Fahrenheit  outside the plane.. yikes that’s pretty cold. We had a couple of surprises on the flight. Judy’s neck pillow was lost as we boarded the plane…we thought it was gone, but I mentioned it to our flight attendant and 10 minutes later he came up and handed it to us. We then mentioned it was our anniversary…53 years, 10 kids, 41 grandchildren, bla,bla,bla….. well, later  he shows up with glasses of champagne and a nice card of congratulations from British Air. We were very touched. I hope to get his name so I can send a note to British Air complimenting him. We also got a very nice card from Jon & Joy, our eldest son and daughter-in-law, who are with us on the trip. It was really nice. We felt very blessed.

So is there a particular message from this BLOG? Well, I think it’s that God is not finished with any of us….young and old. We experienced the encouragement of the Lord on this trip thru our good friends of many years. We were challenged to press on in running the race…God has more for us. 

We’re reading a book called “The Best Is Yet To Come” by Lorene Duquin. There’s a chapter on Reinventing Yourself. She says, ”when you reinvent yourself, you are still the same person you always were, but the changes can give you a new direction in life , help you see yourself in a fresh way…. the opportunity to live authentically by becoming more of who you were all along.” 

In truth we are children of God who are called to love God and our neighbor. We are not defined by what we do or have done over our past life…”hey, I’m a manager or accountant or teacher or janitor or BLOGSTER ”….. no, that’s what I do, not who I am. God wants us to share the love of Christ he has poured into our soul and that has been honed thru the challenges, the joys and sufferings of life. And God wants us to be happy as we share his goodness with others. 

Duquin ends this chapter with a quote from John Henry Newman, “ God has determined, unless I interfere with his plan, that I should reach that which will be my greatest happiness. He looks on me individually , he calls me by my name , he knows what I can do, what I can best be , what is my greatest happiness , and he means to give it to me.” (Meditations And Devotions of the Late Cardinal Newman, by W.P, Neville)

God want us to be happy and he is always at work to bring it to pass. Whether 25 or 55 or 75 years old, God is at work to bring this about. And that is very good news.