What Is Your Flight Plan? Part 1

(Psalm 104:7) “at the sound of your thunder they took to flight”


Many years have passed but I will never forget the memories with my dad. One special memory is when I was young and spent my Saturday’s flying Cessna airplanes with him (or so he led me to believe I was flying the plane...wink). One of my favorite flight plans were when he would do what they (they being the so –called flight people-whoever that is) called “touch and goes.” He would let the landing gear touch the runway and then take off again. We would do this over and over again. (Just a side note: Sis, did you ever wake up from your nap in the back seat to experience this? Or were you praying? He He)

Little did I know how valuable a lesson this would become in my life.

So many times since then, I have sat across from the doctor just to hear him say, “I am sorry but you cannot have children.” –Touchdown of flight.

But God had other plans. –“GO”, the Papa whispered.

And I remember the doctor saying to me, “Your daughter has hearing loss…. She has a learning disability…. She has…” ---Touchdown of flight.

God had other plans. –“GO”. The Papa whispered once again… (Our daughter is a junior in college and working … she is thriving beyond words.) p.s. She hears better than I do!

And then two years ago, the doctor gathered us up in a private room. I could see it in the doctor’s face. He didn’t want to be there either. My heart was in my throat. My sister said, “Connie, please start praying.” There we held hands and prayed. I wanted to leave. His words sounded like they were so very far away. “I don’t think your dad is going to make it, he has had a stroke and is having seizures.” This was hours after open heart surgery. And the warm tears of my heart fell from my soul. Someone just please stop this so-called “touchdown of flight.”

But God has other plans.—“GO” whispered my Papa.

Eventually as with us all, the time finally came for the plane to set down. Several weeks ago, my dad’s flight plan had come to an end and he finally landed safely home. But rejoice for it was the most perfect landing ever.

His journey is complete and his flight plan was perfectly executed.

I am now living my own flight plan. A week ago, the doctor said, “You have an abnormal spot in your left breast that we need to look at.”— Touchdown of life.

Papa?

We all have our “touch and go” moments, do we not?

I thank my dad for teaching me the exhilarating love of that final landing and the excitement and anticipation of those final moments preceding it.

For eventually, we all have to land.

We will all be called Home.

What is your flight plan?

In Loving Memory of my sweet Daddy... Bryant Franklin