What grace looks like

If you look for it, you can see tangible evidence of God's grace.

It's been a very rough week at my job.  I can't talk about what I do online in specifics, but I can say it involves airplanes, and airplanes are things that are notorious for setting their own schedules.  Over the three decades I've been involved with airplanes, I've noticed that the harder you push, the further behind you get.

It's just the nature of the business.  The funniest thing I've ever seen happen happened last night and had nothing to do with events in Utah.  But last night, an airliner inadvertently had an escape slide deploy while the airplane was being serviced on the ground.  Airplanes are fickle things.

And being a mechanic means you need to have your head in the game.  I did, a little too much, today, and got so task focused I forgot where I set a tool.  It took four of us to find it, and we did.  Right up high.  Right where I set it.  

A lot of things are tugging at my heart right now.  The house seems weird without Katie.  She's not here to fight the pussycats for their food.  I can leave rugs on the floor again.  For some reason, there was a smell in rugs and carpet that Katie thought meant it was where she should pee sometimes.

She's not here to let out.  Bucket seems to be doing OK, and that's a good thing.  But the house is weird.  She's not snoring or breathing heavily.  She's not sleeping right in front of me.  She's not here.  And I miss my dog.

On top of that, my kid moved to Chicago.  He left today.  He starts his new job on Monday.  The girlfriend I was thinking was going to follow him out there now isn't.  Nor is the roommate he had lined up.  He's on his own in a strange place.  Prayers that God keeps him under the blood of Jesus are welcome and coveted.

So I misplaced a tool.  I misplaced a coffee cup for a minute or two.  I tried my best to stay busy and did some things on my own to get the plane ready to go, while co-workers were taking care of other chores.

We had to make some adjustments on some of the airplane's systems today.  It's a difficult task and I honestly was hoping I wasn't going to have to do it.  I hoped wrong.  It was my job and it's more difficult for me because where I had to reach was in between steps on the ladder, so I was too tall or too short.  It took a while, but we finally got done what we needed to do.  Sometimes, grace comes in the form of being "it."

Although it's been hectic, it's been busy.  Sometimes grace looks like not being able to take time off work to sit at home and feel sorry for yourself.

Grace sometimes shows up in the form of co-workers who understand it's been a crappy week and don't get mad at you for misplacing a tool.

I dropped a washer on the ramp today walking back in from the hangar.  When you drop stuff like that, it HAS to be found.  I retraced my steps and didn't see it.  I retraced them again and found it.

Grace also today looked like finding a needle in a haystack without having to ask anybody else for help.  It also looked like dropping it in the ONE place on the flight line where it never would have caused any damage to an airplane.

And right about quitting time, grace looked like a trip down memory lane.  Tomorrow is open airplane day at the Hill Aerospace museum.  A friend of mine I used to work with on the docks in the big hangar also volunteers at the museum and he knows my history with "my jet".  I was the last guy to fix 1510.  We have a history.

Anyway, the guy at the museum didn't know how to open a KC-135.  I went over and showed him and got a couple of photos of the airplane.  I needed that.  But just for a minute.  The cool thing was that I could share the photos with my other Guard friends.  I got to see how well we took care of our airplanes.  1510 looks like it just came off the assembly line.  I kid you not!  The seats are in great shape, the floor is immaculate, the insulation looks brand new.  It's clean.  The guy said it's the nicest looking airplane they own.  

That says a lot about the people I worked with in the Guard and we can take pride in a job done so well that it's been preserved like a time capsule.  If you like airplanes, you should go look at it.

The guy at the museum offered me the job of being the airplane's volunteer crew chief.  I told him I'd think about it but I'm gonna take a pass.  It's the past, and I'm not going that way.  I'm grateful to him for getting a peek back into it.  I needed it today, mostly to share with my friends.  It took me back to a happier time, when I was bouncing around the world, doing what I loved with people I miss, and it was a blessed time in my life; much like the adventures my son is now having in his own life.  I'm happy for him.

I'm sad for me.

And in it, I see God's grace.  Grace to keep me busy when I needed it.  Grace to help me remember the good times of the past but wisdom to know to leave it where it belongs. Grace from coworkers who gave me some understanding.  The grace of delay.  And the ability to share with co-workers where I saw God's providence in events surrounding our day.  

My week sucked, but I was not for one minute alone.  

Thank you, Jesus.  And thank you Father God for your infinite grace.