What delayed the flight?

Reva Lachica Moore

I’m a very punctual person. In all my appointments, I’m usually in the meeting place half an hour or more ahead of schedule. I give myself enough time for unexpected delays such as traffic jams.
Flying from Phoenix the other day, I woke up J.R. early to get ready. After a quick breakfast at the hotel, we drove to the car rental place, and then took the shuttle back to the airport. We arrived at the terminal three hours before our departure time of 12:00 noon. I felt good even though J.R. kept chuckling for our being such early birds.
We found our gate and noticed that our scheduled time of departure had been changed to 1:30 p.m. One and a half hours later. This did not alarm us because we had almost three hours layover in Memphis and plenty of time to catch our next flight.
In the gate next to ours, due to the delay of the flights, they had announced free travel vouchers for 8 people who would like to give up their seats. It was obvious that many flights were delayed that morning.
We boarded the plane and three hours later, we landed in Memphis.
But a few others on our plane missed their next flights. The woman sitting next to me on her way to Washington was rerouted to Memphis, and she didn’t know why.
A woman grumbled for missing her plane. Someone tried to quiet her down.
After the plane landed in Memphis, we only had 45 minutes to go to our next gate. We quickly grabbed sandwiches and drink, scurried to our gate and gobbled down our food as soon as we sat down. I noticed that there were only a few passengers in the waiting area. “Where is everybody?” I asked J.R.
A few minutes later I glanced at the gate monitor and noticed our departure time had been changed from 7:30 p.m. to 8:53 p.m. I was puzzled because 8:53 p.m. was our supposedly arrival time in Baton Rouge. The other passengers were concerned, too.
What had caused the delay? There was no storm. No fog. What’s going on? I walked over to the counter to find out.
“Sir, are we delayed? And why?” I asked.
“President Bush was in Phoenix and had just arrived in Maryland. All flights are delayed!” The flight attendant replied.
“Yes, I know! I just came from Phoenix!” I exclaimed, for I suddenly remembered the unusual sight I saw while in the shuttle on our way to the Phoenix Airport that morning.
The shuttle bus driver had announced, “Hey folks, if you’ve not seen Air Force One before, there it is on your left!”
We stretched our necks and surely there it was! The President’s jet! Its name: United States of America. The U.S. President was in Phoenix the day before for a fundraising campaign.
And when we arrived at our departure gate in Phoenix that morning, another passenger remarked that Air Force One had just left. From the huge glass window, we saw a convoy of black SUVs and a fire truck headed to the other side of the airport.
“The security people cannot take a chance in having planes take off or land when the President’s jet is around,” J.R. said.
It did not occur to me that every precautionary step had to be taken for the safety of the U.S. President.
Wow! The most important man in the whole world was able to delay the flights!
Then I thought of yet another very important Being. One more important than President Bush. “Jesus Christ,” the King of Kings of the whole Universe! Our Creator God Who one day will come, unannounced, with a convoy of countless angels. He will not just stop all the flights. He will stop every activity of man in this world. And when He does, there is no resuming of any activity, except for those who will go to His heavenly place with Him.