Flying Across the World

Airplane travel is always a very curious experience for me. I am fortunate to have unique opportunities to fly all over the United States and, occasionally, across the world. Today I am on my way to Billund, Denmark and have made a brief hiatus in Amsterdam. Layovers in Europe provide me with time to reflect on my feelings from the flight.

From packing to ticketing, the process leading up to boarding the plane offers a unique blend of nervousness and excitedness. I often wonder where everyone is going and where these people call home. We look like vagabonds who temporarily reside in the airport.

When I finally board the airplane, two thoughts always cross my mind. The first is the recalling of a stand-up act by George Carlin about airline announcements. It provides me just the right amount of cathartic humor needed to take the edge off the fact that I will be hovering above the North Atlantic for over six hours.

Secondly, I ponder a blog post by David Crowder that is almost 10 years old. He mentioned how difficult it is to trust physics when you look at the shape and size of a Boeing 747. The idea of lift force and Bernoulli’s Principle just does not make sense, but before you can rationalize your thought process, it actually works and you begin climbing through the clouds. While the clouds engulf the airplane, the sudden turbulence forces you to actually believe that your doubts about lift force will prove to be correct this time and the laws of science will fail, but then you get above the clouds everything changes. Everything!

Crowder wrote about how he was actually disappointed that no one ever told him of the beauty that is present above the clouds. I love gazing across the horizon until I cannot see any further. Every time I fly and look out that window, it is as though it is the first time that I am experiencing the feeling I get while breathing in all of that beauty. I get a wonderful taste of the “awe factor” of God. I immediately identify with what the ancients simply called the heavens. It communicates old truths to my heart in a fresh way. Psalm 19:1-4 speaks of the heavens declaring God’s glory. Inevitably, I end up speechless as I recognize how big God is and how small I am.

At 36,000 feet, there are no words in our vocabulary to describe the scene. The sun set creates poetic and artistic imagery. I attempt to comprehend this awesome beauty of such radiant colors splashed across the sky, but my thoughts seem so lacking. Francis Chan says, “The many facets of God expand beyond our comprehension. He cannot be contained in this world, explained by our vocabulary or grasped by our understanding.” Amen!