Don’t Miss the Flight

Airports offer excellent people-watching opportunities. While waiting to board a plane, I heard a small voice behind me repeating, “Daddy! I don’t want to miss the flight!” I could hear the anxiety in the boy’s voice as he ran to the window to observe the activity on the tarmac. His dark eyes searched for a way to get out to the waiting plane. His eyebrows tried to meet in the middle, drawn tight with concern.

His father pointed to the plane at our gate and explained that they would board the next one that parked there. This calmed the boy some, but he would periodically declare, “I don’t want to miss the flight!” Despite his father’s assurances, this precious child found it difficult to believe he would not miss his ride.

Because it was an early morning flight, I imagine his parents had asked him to hurry a time or two. If they’re like me, they threatened the worst-case scenario: the missed flight. “Hurry! Brush your teeth or we’ll miss the flight.” “Buckle up quickly so we don’t miss the flight.” Now that he was safe and sound at gate D2, the fear of a missed flight toyed with his imagination.

Do you have that “missed flight” fear? Not a literal flight, but a deep and settled assurance that after this life, you will go to heaven. Perhaps you’ve endured years of teaching that you must maintain certain behaviors to secure a place in heaven. Or your understanding of the way to heaven is to “be a good person”—a quest that’s never complete.

With all these uncertainties floating around in your soul, anxiety about death and eternity is real. We need someone to assure us we won’t miss the flight, someone to tell us it’s not too late.

The assurance we seek is found in Christ. As he walked with his disciples, he told them the way to heaven. “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 NLT).

Because of the wrong we do—even the smallest wrong things—we’re separated from God. Our sin should result in being cut off from him forever, but Jesus offers hope. He lived a perfect and sinless life, yet he stood in our place, taking the punishment for our sin. He stood between God and man, accepting the sinner’s death we should suffer.

If we could do enough to earn our salvation, then his death wouldn’t have been necessary. Conversely, we cannot mess up enough to undo what Jesus did on the cross. His death on the cross covers all the sins of all the people. All we need to be certain of our salvation is to accept his death as the punishment for our sins. All the wrong things we do are covered completely by that one right thing Jesus did.

[Tweet “Today you can be certain of your eternal destination.”]

If you’re calling out “I don’t want to miss my flight,” let me assure you, it’s not too late. Today you can be certain of your eternal destination. Admit you are a sinner. Believe that Jesus is the covering for your sin. Acknowledge your sins, and accept God’s love. There, in that safe place, you can be sure you will not miss the flight.