November 4

After a nice weekend of celebrating both Abby's 20th birthday and family weekend in Wheaton, the boys and I headed back to the west coast this morning. And I was blessed with an unexpected surprise along the way.

See, we wound up with pretty terrible boarding positions for our first flight (from Midway to Las Vegas. Think mid C-group on Southwest. I was pretty horrified that checking in 15 seconds after the window opened could yield such awful results but that's how the ball bounces, I guess). I was convinced that we'd all wind up in middle seats spread throughout the plane and although I didn't like the idea, I'd more or less made peace with it.

Anyway, a moment after I boarded (and confirmed with the flight attendant at the door that there were only middles left), I spotted an empty one in the second row, made eye contact with the man seated in the aisle, and asked if I could squeeze by. Much to my surprise, he replied "wouldn't you rather have the aisle?" and moved to the center seat. I was confused for a moment, and then he gestured to the rather large suitcase he'd stuffed under the center seat and explained that his bag wouldn't find under the aisle seat. So I was the beneficiary of his too-big bag situation. After I got beyond the slack-jawed surprised reaction, I (and my knees, which get stiff and painful when I can't bend them for extended periods of time) thanked him profusely. 

Mary's sermon about justice, mercy, and grace came back to me yet again in that moment. I did nothing to deserve the gift that came in the form of that aisle seat, but I got it anyway. That's grace. And grace is a beautiful, beautiful blessing. (Just ask my knees.)