Minister’s Forum

By Editor | June 14, 2012 |

Not long ago, I was traveling home from a visit with my daughter and I made a stop in Atlanta.
While waiting in the gate area for the flight to St. Louis, I noticed two things that could be used for this article.

The first item came to my attention as I was checking my pockets to remove the change from my coffee purchase. Along with the change, I retrieved a wrapper from the peanuts served on the first flight. I scanned the print on the wrapper to identify the company that supplied the nuts to the airline and noticed a peculiar warning on the bottom edge of the wrapper. The warning informed even the most casual of observers that the nuts in the package had been processed in a facility that distributes peanuts. The warning makes sense for a product that has no apparent connection to a nut processing plant. In this case, it seems a gigantic overstatement of the amazingly obvious. I looked around at the crowd of people and wondered who would not be able to determine that nuts in a package came from a nut processing plant. One guy caught my attention, but after a moment’s contemplation, I decided everyone in this airport could figure out this connection.
The second issue caught my attention during the boarding process. The clerk at the desk called for those passengers with children in need of special assistance to board, and a few people made their way to the door of the jet way. The clerk then invited all of those with gold, silver, platinum, titanium, diamond-studded and dipped-in-Swiss-chocolate travel club memberships to board using the designated lane.
I was curious about the designated lane, so I shifted my vantage point to see what was involved. What I saw made me chuckle. About 20 feet away was a small sign indicating the members of the gold, sliver, platinum, titanium, diamond-studded, dipped-in-Swiss-chocolate travel club should pass on the right side of the sign. General boarding should pass on the left side. It seemed like a big deal made out of nothing.
There is but one who can make something of nothing, and he does it every day for each of us. He showers his blessing upon us through his grace and mercy, without regard for our pretense.
It should be as obvious as the peanut thing, but maybe we need to be reminded. This is the day that he has made – we should rejoice and be glad.