Most of us dread going through the TSA lines at the airport. It’s been my preference to opt out, and submit to a pat down rather than be exposed to the x-rays. But unfortunately during my prior trip they gave me the third degree for something the computer apparently picked up on my backpack. I pretty much freaked out inwardly, but thankfully they decided I was not a threat after all. 😉 So this last week I decided to go along with the crowd, and submitted to the x-ray routine to avoid any hassles.
Successfully passing through the x-ray machine, I noticed my backpack had been set aside. Oh great! Finally getting someone’s attention, I inquired of the nearest TSA agent, “Excuse me. My bag is stuck.”
“It’s NOT STUCK!” the overbearing female agent argued. “It’s been SET ASIDE.” Suddenly she seemed to morph into a grisly guard in a women’s prison. Rather than suggesting a career change, I chose to cooperate.
“Stand over here,” she ordered. So I did. I watched in shock as she rifled through my backpack, pulling things out, shoving them back in, opening flaps, zipping and unzipping zippers…to no avail. (I was tempted to ask her if she realized how hard I worked to get everything to fit in there!) I almost wished she would have found something so I could get on with the next step of this bizarre ordeal.
Turning her gaze on me like a grizzly whose rabbit just got away, she demanded, “Are there anymore compartments in here?” Surprising myself that I wasn’t shaking yet, I calmly answered, “No,” and came clean by informing her that I had a lunch box at the bottom. (Good thing I learned from the movies that full disclosure usually helps in these situations.)
With a renewed vigor, she then attacked the backpack once more, scattering my stuff everywhere as she dove to retrieve the lunch box. Exuding victory, she unzipped the soft padded lunch box, and fully-gloved she proceeded first to examine my cheese. Without cracking a smile the entire time, she held it up to the light, and scrutinized it thoroughly. Apparently not satisfied that my cheese was dangerous, she grabbed the other object in the lunch: my steamed broccoli.
Bingo! Now THAT was apparently the suspicious object as evidenced by her extremely intense examination. She held it up to the light, turned it upside down and all around. And again. And again. Of course my mind went into full gear rehearsing all the possible scenarios that might follow. (Maybe I should be glad she was not a prison guard!)
Finally she shoved the broccoli back into the lunch box, crammed most of my stuff back into the pack, told me I could go, and turned and walked away.
“Excuse me,” I bravely said, “Can you please tell me what the red flag was, so I can be sure this does not happen again?”
She pivoted around, glared at me and said, “Organic mass.”
“You mean my broccoli???”
“ORGANIC MASS!” she growled, and stomped away.
As I proceeded down the long concourse, it hit me that in all this although I felt so alone and vulnerable humanly speaking, I was neither alone nor vulnerable. The LORD was with me, and He gave me peace and helped me not freak out! Yay! It is so encouraging to have these moments when we see our faith in the LORD truly is genuine and growing, even though it may not always feel like it.
Thankfully, the rest of the trip was uneventful, and organic mass never tasted so good! 🙂
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.” 1 Peter 1:6-7 NIV
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