Travel and Finding the Words

 People have asked me where I get my inspiration for my Sunday morning devotional posts. I always tell them that they are not my words, but God’s; that He places the right words on my heart and directs me to a fitting Bible passage.

I haven’t blogged on a Sunday in quite a while. God has not instructed me as to what to say. 

Last Friday night at midnight, it had been eight weeks since those officers showed up at our door to tell us that my Val had passed away. Four weeks later, I hopped on a plane for a trip to the Czech Republic that had been planned for months. 

I’ve been trying to think of a way to tie Val’s life to that trip somehow and present it from a Biblical perspective. God’s just shaking His head. I’m not sure why.

Every day while I was gone, something came to mind that reminded me of Val. The food we ate, the streets we wandered, the people we met, the laughs we had, getting money out of a foreign ATM. My daughter was there.

The last time I was at an airport was when I was flying back home from Kenya with Val and my friend. So many memories in such a random act.

The first time we went to Kenya, way back in 2006, Val had just broken up with her boyfriend. She spent most of that first flight in the bathroom, crying.

Flashforward 19 years.

We always watch movies on the longer flights, and on the flight home from Europe this time, I watched a sappy show where the guy dies in the end. I calmly got up from my seat, went to the bathroom, locked the door, and broke down. 

And where is God in all of this? I know He is watching over me. I know that Jesus walks by my side every day, walked down every street we explored in Prague and the surrounding cities. I know Jesus’s eyes filled with tears, just like mine did, when we visited the Terezin concentration camp.

But through His tears, Jesus said, “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth, you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33, New Living Translation)

God has always got the words.