Hi Everybody,
 
I feel like the time for our departure has finally arrived.  God has been planning, and humanity has been preparing, for this day for 6,000 years (or more).   It feels strange to think it has finally arrived.  I feel privileged to be standing here in this place and at this time, like I am the last representative of a long line of ancestry that began with Adam, passed through Noah, and then followed a path of branches and then twigs of an ancient tree.  Now I am at the end of the smallest twig, of the last branch.  The tiny bud that will grow no further.  I feel like I am at an airport, about to board the last flight out.
 
The many months and weeks of watching on the wall have been like the long drive to the airport.  The car has been parked in "long term" parking.  I feel that I have passed through the terminal and through security.  Now I am in the terminal waiting to board.  Some people look detached.  Others seem sad to leave.  People around me are saying good-bye to family and friends who will not be going.  I sense many pockets of sadness around me.  Decisions have been made.  Minds refuse to be changed.  Others seem anxious, even a bit nervous.
 
The boarding announcement of "first call" goes out over the public address system.  Some scramble for the gate while others hug and moan.  Tears flow.  Some are tears of joy and some are tears of bitter sorrow and loneliness.  Children seem excited.  A few sense something is off and cry.  I am fortunate.  It is just my wife and myself.  She hasn't been the strongest of believers, especially about the imminent arrival of this day.  I feel deep relief and gratitude that we have both been found worthy.  Now it feels so strange to be leaving.  I wonder what the world will be like when I come back in the future.  That is, if I ever do come back again.  Will any of this be here??  Will I even want to come back??
 
My wife and I walk to the gate and I hand our boarding passes to the ticket agent.  It occurs to me that those boarding passes are the most precious and valuable documents on the entire planet at this particular moment in time.  A silly thought enters my mind.  If somebody could get their hands on them, what would they sell for on E-Bay??  Walking onto the plane I notice the thickness of the aircraft skin and the seals around the door.  The door seems so heavy and thick.   The first thing I notice is a slight change of air pressure and the smell of fresh coffee being brewed in the first class galley.  As I pause briefly, the door to the cockpit comes open and I get a glimpse inside.  The pilot, co-pilot, and flight engineer are at their seats and focused on their checklists.  There are so many instruments and so many indicator lights.  Many of the lights are on.  I wonder what they all mean.  There are knobs and buttons everywhere, even on the ceiling and on panels between the pilot and co-pilot's seats.  I wish I could watch what is going on a little longer, but the line is moving.  I must find my seat.
 
As I walk down the isle I am in awe of what I just saw.  I know that God and Jesus are in the tower and the control center.  I also know the Holy Spirit is in a plane somewhere else on the airport, about to take off in front of us.  Therefore, the people I saw in the cockpit were real angels.  I don't mean the kind you hang on the Christmas tree.  Those were real, live angels.  WOW!!!  We really are at the point of departure that mankind has hoped for and waited for all of history.  It really is going to happen.
 
I find my seat and sit down.  Made it!!!  I am here!!!  Really, really here.  Wow.  I smell the air and adjust the overhead vent.  My wife doesn't say much.  That is really different.  Big time different.
 
Other things are different as well.  Nobody is loading bags in the overhead racks.  That is definitely different.  Still, some people are getting down blankets and pillows.  That seems silly.  I know we are going to be crossing what could be described as "light years" of space, but it is not going to take very long.  Not on this airline.  The children around me feel the anticipation.  I guess some things never change.
 
I look out the window and across the tarmac.  The sky is very dark and threatening. The clouds seem so incredibly low this morning.  A light rain is falling.  Leaving one home for another in a far away place makes me feel melancholy.  There were times I really loved living here, and there were times I hurt so badly inside I didn't want to live any longer.  Nothing holds me here now.  If I had to describe what I feel at this moment in just one word, that word would be "completion."  A chapter closes.  There is so much evil beyond the airport fence, but I am safe now.  It cannot harm me here.  My minds wanders back in time to a field trip to the San Francisco Zoo when I was a little boy.  I remember looking at the poisonous snakes behind the glass of their cages, just like I am looking through the glass of the planes window now.  So deadly.  So evil.  So close.  And yet, I know I am safe now.  My heart aches for the friends and family I know that I am leaving behind.
 
The door of the plane closes.  The air pressure changes again ever so slightly.  The air coming through my overhead vent increases a bit.  The loading ramp retracts away from the plane back toward the ramp.  I feel the nudge of the tug pushing back from the ramp.  We just rolled our first few feet toward out new home.  The tug stops to unhook itself from the plane.  We are sitting.  Moments seem forever.  I pray that our takeoff won't be delayed.  I feel my heart rate increasing.  Anticipation is building.  I feel an overwhelming desire to cry and I am not sure why.  Please don't let out take-off be delayed.
 
Carl Worline
oaktree3168 @ aol.com