Infertility Encouragement from Sarah's LaughterSample

Bored Flight Attendants

Want to know what comforts me most on a turbulent flight? Not the proximity of the exit rows. Not the belief that a tiny two-inch strap of canvas could keep me safe if I go hurtling through the sky. It’s not even the fact that there’s a barf bag waiting to catch my cookies should I be forced to toss them. The most comforting thing to me on a bumpy flight is a bored, sleepy flight attendant.

Yawning. Stretching. Catching her balance enough to glance at her watch. She knows the pilot is in control even if the ride is bumpy. Together they have carried gazillions of passengers before me and there are gazillions more to come. The flight attendant is confident that the pilot knows what he’s doing—so I can be too.

I’ve been on many rough flights, but I have never once stormed the cockpit to ask the pilot what he was doing to ensure my safety. I never even considered the thought that he’d forgotten that there was a passenger in seat 10C. Even if he had explained to me how this massive, mechanical bird could lift off the ground and sail away to nearly any destination on this globe, I wouldn’t understand it anyway. I didn’t have to. I just sat down, strapped myself in for the ride. Then I asked a very bored, very sleepy flight attendant for a soda.

Do you realize that Jesus is simply not worried about your life? It’s not that He’s unconcerned—He’s just not worried. He doesn’t sit around in distress wondering how He’s going to pull you through the latest round of fertility testing or the next baby shower you’ve been invited to. He’s like the flight attendant who never blinks an eye when the plane bounces from cloud to cloud. When you find yourself getting scared because you feel so out of control since your baby died—and you’re beginning to doubt that you will reach your ultimate destination—glance at Jesus. See the calm that He brings. No panicked look on His face. He knows the Pilot, and He knows that together you’re going to arrive safely at your destination.

(Adapted from When Love & Sorrow Embrace: The Sufficiency of God’s Grace Through the Heartache of Miscarriage by Beth Forbus (C) 2006)