Isn’t it funny how you can meet someone and connect with them almost instantly?
Last week while flying from Sarasota to Charlotte I sat next to the most extraordinary young woman. She was travelling home to Pittsburgh with her two teenage children. Our conversation started with the usual, “where are you going?”, but I’m sure neither of us had a clue where we were heading in the ninety minutes or so on that plane.
At first our connections were based on geography; my sister lived for a short while in the same town her husband grew up in. The information started with a steady drip and then flowed freely like a faucet opened full blast. Unlike some of my encounters with strangers where data is dumped and then is ended, I shared with her as well. In a very short time we were fully engaged in topics that are usually reserved for close friends and certainly not shared with casual acquaintances. We were two women, both on journeys home, at different stages in the journey of life, coming together for a brief moment sharing conversational postcards of where we’d been and where we hope to go.
Pardon the pun but the time “flew” by. As we landed in Charlotte, my new friend turned to me and said, “I can’t believe this. I never talk to anyone on planes.”
As I look back, almost a week later, I am reminded of the story of Jesus and the woman at the well; of the excitement she felt after her chance meeting with the Lord. I know we were not alone in row 6; the Spirit was also there, prompting and fostering the connections. There are no cooincidences in life. Chance meetings are not just a roll of the dice, they are “chance” in terms of opportunity; a chance to make the connection.
I’m not certain why my new friend and I we seated together on that plane. It could have been to make the trip a little more pleasant, or something more. I may never know. For now, it is enough that it was.