By Reba Phelps
The airport is truly a place that can evoke all kinds of deep emotions. Some may have sweet childhood memories of watching airplanes take off because they lived near an airport. Some may have fond memories of picking up loved ones as they returned home from a long journey or possibly even from serving a call of duty. While others may have sad memories of watching someone move far away from home with no definite time to return.
More times than not, there may be pure excitement in the airport. Maybe you are taking a vacation that was planned years in advance from the discipline of saving all of the money necessary to enjoy a trip of a lifetime. Maybe you are excited because it is your first time flying anywhere. Or, maybe the airport makes you feel stress because of the vehicle traffic, the people traffic, and flight delays.
The emotions that one can feel are absolutely endless but the one thing I enjoy most about airports is watching people hug. Typically in an airport, the hugs are tighter. They are sweeter. They linger longer as if you don’t know when you will get that same hug again. I could watch this for days and only imagine what the story is behind the hug.
This past week my little family had the opportunity to spend some time together. My oldest daughter flew in from Idaho to meet us while I was on a work trip. Our time was so brief due to meetings but I knew once the meetings were over, I would have so much fun catching up with my daughters while they were under one roof. Being a parent is realizing that when your children enjoy time together without you, you have done your job.
My girls actually like each other and probably have more fun without me and I am totally okay with that. It blesses me just seeing them love being together.
As the trip came to an end we had to leave my oldest at the airport. Having done this dozens of times we were prepared and told each other we would not cry. We were going to have a solid goodbye with zero tears. We were going to be big girls. As we pulled into the airport, we almost refused to speak or even look at each other. We just kept singing the Taylor Swift songs that were playing in the background.
While we were disembarking from our car I noticed what appeared to be another mom saying goodbye to her daughter. They were hugging so tightly and crying so much they were vibrating. I tried to be cynical about the gushy display of emotion and told myself, geez you will see each other again… but would they? I didn’t know, but there I was judging as if I did.
Once my daughter’s suitcase was unloaded, we just started at each other noticing all eyes were full of tears. We hugged and shed tears as if she was going off to war. The airport hugs are the sweetest but never the easiest hugs. While we have so many reasons to count our blessings, saying goodbye is always tough.
Love will always make you feel all of the emotions. Love will make the hugs tighter. Love will make you miss those that you cannot see every day. Love will even disappoint you and hurt your feelings. When we are filled with the perfect love of Christ, we have no choice but to share that love with others. It shows up in our speech, it shows up in our hugs, it shows up when dealing with strangers…the love of Christ is endless.
“We love because he first loved us.”
1 John 4:19