Airport Rides

Have you ever gone on a God Hunt? A God Hunt begins when you teach yourself to look for God’s hand at work in the everyday occurrences of your life. Here’s one of my personal God Hunt Sightings:



Cathie Clark is a friend who helps out in the Global Bag Project room and stretches her income, like we are all doing, by pinching pennies and surveying the sales at resale shops. But I don’t know anyone who has the spiritual gift of helps more than Cathie does.

So every so often, when David and I need a ride to the airport, we’ll give Cathie a call and if she can help, she cheerily provides rides to and pickups from O’Hare or Midway.
I am the type of person who hates to take this willingness of people for granted, so I am reluctant to overdo my requests. Yet there are times when we don’t want to take the money to hire a limo, or when none of our adult children can fit in another airport trip, when David has a conflict on his calendar or when our one family car is going in another direction than east toward the city.

I had to ask Cathie to pick me up early one Wednesday morning and then be ready to come past for me the next Saturday as I flew in from California arriving at O’Hare at midnight. This was a little hard for me to do, although Cathie never gives me the feeling that she is reluctant to provide this service. And David and I always try to cover her gas expenses.

As we were driving to O’Hare she actually said to me, “I love these airport rides.” Why in the world?, I wondered. “Oh it gives me an uninterrupted hour to chat with you,” she said.

Some of the best gifts in the world are really, really small, almost unnoticeable. Cathie is right. Instead of feeling hesitant about asking for a favor, I should be thinking, I will get to spend an uninterrupted hour with this friend. What a great gift!

Sometimes when people ask me to do certain things for them that I love to do, it affirms the gifts God has given to me to share. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to the body to be used for the body.

Next time I ask Cathie for a favor to drive me to the airport, I’ll try to think: This will give me an uninterrupted hour with this friend. Certainly this is one of God’s gifts to us all—time for friendship.

I spy God!