Grace is the understanding that God is a better Savior than you are a sinner.
Christopher Love
The Subway to Nowhere
By Neva Bodin
It seems any experience in my life that had negative aspects is laid down with permanent tile in my mosaic memory. (Some tiles of memory seem to have crumbled and been washed away by age or replaced by new experiences.)
We were farming and our 25th Anniversary was looming on the horizon (many years ago…). For five years, I squirreled change into a vacation fund. One very cool summer, between cutting alfalfa and prairie hay—the usual time to have a vacation, we donned our jackets and headed to Hawaii. A lovely experience. Warm in Hawaii. We forgot our jackets in the hotel room. Another story.
Returning home contained a layover at Sea-Tac, Seattle’s large airport. We arrived very late in the evening and had several hours until our next flight back to ND. We were hungry. We were told a place to eat, though it was now near midnight, was on a different floor. The subway train would take us there. No prob.
We entered the car when the subway doors opened. We sat down and it took off. The airport lost its electricity. The car stopped, and we sat in pitch-blackness, the only occupants.
Shortly after, the electricity was restored; our speeding car took off. A few minutes later, it slowed a tiny bit, then stopped suddenly so we could disembark. Only, the entire doorway was filled with a brick wall! No opening as far as the eye could see.
We looked at each other, and Arlo asked, “Now what do we do?” I intelligently answered, “I don’t know!”
In short order, we were speeding off again. It braked to a stop. Looked like the same brick wall as the doors again opened, urging us to get off!
At the 4th stop, the doors opened into a large airport waiting room. We had no clue where we were, but we disembarked. And I looked for someone who might give us information.
Eventually, we found out we were nowhere near the cafeteria, and about three floors from our boarding gate, with now less than an hour until boarding. We walked up three flights of stairs, found our gate, sat down, forgot about eating, and made it home—hungry but safe.
Life speeds merrily along sometimes, and then we may lose our wireless connection to the creator, our spiritual electricity that powers us. We feel like we’ve hit a brick wall.
We can look in the book of connections and directions (spelled Bible) for how to navigate this subway train of life we are currently stuck on, in order to “fly” home at the end of our terrestrial journey, assured that the brick walls will eventually open to freedom from anxiety. And forget about looking for food. (Not easy for me.)
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. (KJV)
