“Ladies and gentlemen, let me have your attention. I have a status update for passengers on flight 1047.”
My connecting flight had already been delayed three times. Surely this announcement would be good news.
“We are making a gate change and bringing in a new aircraft. Please proceed to Gate C 7. Departure time is scheduled for 7:15 p.m.”
I looked at my watch. It was only 5:30. I sighed….more waiting. I picked up my bag and trudged down the corridor with a mass of grumpy travelers.
At the new gate I pulled out my book and began reading the next chapter.
I was jolted back to reality by a screaming child. He is expressing my feelings perfectly, I thought. The wailing increased. This was one unhappy kid. The child’s mother tried a variety of tactics to calm him. All were unsuccessful.
People sitting nearby moved to seats farther away. Passengers with headphones turned up the volume on their iPods. Others rolled their eyes, shook their heads, slumped deeper behind their newspapers.
Except one woman. I watched as she got up from her seat and walked toward the frazzled mom and her shrieking son.
She smiled, sat down, and opened her purse. Reaching inside, she took out a small bottle.
It was a bottle of bubbles. She pulled the tiny wand from the liquid and gently blew bubbles in to the air.
The child watched, mesmerized. And he quit crying.
The mother smiled. I smiled. Smiles were everywhere. That little bottle of bubbles had transformed the whole scene.
“Bubbles” is not a biblical word, but “love” sure is, and I think that bubbles and love had a lot in common that day. Not just bubbles, though. Bubbles in the hand of a person who was willing to enter into an uncomfortable situation when the rest of us had retreated.
“Love is patient, love is kind….” (1 Corinthians 13:4).
Your story made me smile, too. Thanks for a simple, yet wonderful example of love and grace.