It is true that on a daily basis, there are many things that take place, which lead to loss of lives. There are wars, diseases, famine, hunger and road accidents. However, for some reason, whenever there is a plane crash involving a passenger jet, everyone’s attention tends to focus on the phenomenon. There is something about passenger jets that seems to suggest that the flight should be safe. In terms of statistics, air travel remains one of the safest with a proven track record. Consequently, entire families board the same plane hoping that all will be fine. I must admit however that I am always a little bit hesitant at the thought of having my entire family go on a long distant flight on the same plane. Needless to say, like many people, I have spent the last five days or so, thinking about life in the context of flights and the uncertainty of both life and flights.
One thing that continues to boggle my mind is the fact that in the case of Flight 370, no one still knows what happened almost five days later. We continue to pray for families and friends of all those affected by this tragedy. In a world that is so hopeful about technological advancement, where any one can sit on a personal computer and follow the flight path of a loved one on board, the experts are clueless about the path of Flight 370. It did not escape me that just a couple weeks ago, scientists discovered more than 170 planets most of them thousands of miles away. Surprisingly, with the same technology, we cannot locate a jet within our own atmosphere despite the fact that the cockpit is inundated with signals and communication gears. As I ruminated over the implications of this reality, my faith kicked in. I found myself asking a couple questions: Is not our lives more or less like a flight that has a clear destination but that every so often is off the radar? Is our planet not on a path not so much unlike a flight path on a daily basis?
We now know from our science that the earth rotates on its own axis at a terrible speed of more than one thousand miles an hour. It is scary if one spends some quality time thinking about it. I am always mesmerized by those high definition pictures from NASA taken from the space depicting our planet Earth as a small lonely vehicle moving delicately across the space. This past week, I found myself wondering why it does not concern me that by walking on the surface of the earth, I am actually in a natural spacecraft for undetermined amount of time, traveling towards a determined destination. I can only imagine that this destination is eternity, where we will dwell in peace and tranquility. Yes, on our journey in this life we can only hope for a safe flight, a one way flight with no return.
