My friend
Paul Wilkinson posted this moving account on his
Thinking Out Loud blog today. It bears repeating! Who did you or will you bless today?
Sometimes life hands you an opportunity to do something nice for
people, and all you can do is stand back and watch it unfold. Barbara
and I were returning home from California last week and were upgraded to
first class. What a blessing! But that blessing lasted just a few
moments before we saw an opportunity to do something even better. Better
than first class? You bet.
As we waited to board our flight from Dallas/Ft. worth to Tulsa, we
heard our name called over the speaker, requesting us to come to the
check-in desk. The agent told us that they would like to move us to
first class in order to keep another family together on the plane. I
said to the agent, “Alexis, you are our new best friend.” She smiled,
handed us our tickets and said we could board the plane. Yep, first
class, folks! We’re flying First CLASS!!
I can now tell you that, after spending the previous three hours
sitting in the economy section with our backs against the restrooms in
the tail of the plane, the first class seats are amazing. They are wide,
comfortable leather seats, big enough to accommodate both of us in one
seat if we wanted, and leg room for someone and a foot and a half
taller. We sat down a little dazed at our amazing luck.
Now it was us who got to feel like rich, important people as the
remainder of the poor economy class folks boarded the plane, looking us
over to see if we might be a celebrity or a famous sports figure. At
least, that’s what I do when I walk through first class.
We were in our seats for less than a minute when two servicemen
walked by in their digital camouflage fatigues. As we watched them walk
past us to the economy class, Barbara turned to me and said, “That’s not
right.” I said, “I know. Wait until everyone is on board and we’ll call
the flight attendant over.”
When the aisle cleared, I called over the nearest flight attendant
and said, “We’d like to trade seats with those servicemen. They should
be in first class.”
“That’s so sweeeeet,” the attendant said as she began to fan her face with her hand. “I think I’m going to cry.”
I said, “We were just upgraded to these seats and those two men
should have them.” She looked at us for a moment, called over another
flight attendant and they went back and informed the servicemen.
“You’re not going to be able to sit together,” one of the flight attendants told us.
“That’s okay,” I said. “They should have the first class seats.”
After we sat down in our new economy class seats, the man next to me said, “Nice move.”
I said, “Anyone willing to give up their life for me and my country
deserves to have my seat in first class.” He nodded his head in
agreement.
I must admit that I sat there a little stunned at what just happened.
It is not every day that you get to do the right thing, in public, and
do it in a way that strangers look at you with approval and admire your
actions. I kept thinking about what the man next to me said. “Nice
move.” No, I thought, the nice move is when two young men chose to join
the armed services of their country when they don’t have to, and are
willing to give up their life for their country and our continued
safety. THAT is a nice move worthy of both admiration and approval. They
are willing to give up their lives for me. All we did was give up two
comfortable seats we didn’t even pay for.
A pastor I know likes to say, “You are blessed to be a blessing.” It
seems Barbara and I were blessed with first class seats for about four
minutes just so we could pass that blessing off to someone else. I
encourage you to be aware of an opportunity to bless someone with
something you have, no matter how temporary. You never know Who might
be watching and say, “Nice move.”
