A couple of weeks ago, I flew from Salt Lake City to Seattle. From the start, the trip seemed doomed to be an endless series of minor annoyances. The plane was delayed for a tire change, my reading light didn’t work, and there was so much static on my headset that it made watching in-flight entertainment painful. Annoyed and left with nothing to do but stare out the window, I watched as the sky grew dim.

When I first noticed the sky, all I could see were a series of pimples on the distant horizon. As we flew closer, it became obvious that I was looking at the mountain peaks that make up the Cascade Volcanic Range.  The individual peaks divided the horizon.  Beneath the mountains it was black, and they broke into a skyline that began as a deep burgundy that gradually turned to burnt orange, before lightening through shades of orange and yellow.  The yellow lightened and became a light blue that then darkened into the deep blue of night.  There were no clouds, and a single star, just above the horizon, accented the bright blue of the evening sky.

It was one of the most stunning views I've ever seen from an airplane, and one I would have missed if even one of my minor annoyances had not manifest itself on the flight.

It got me thinking… maybe the other "delays and inconveniences" in my life are actually the Lord lining things up so that I don't miss something amazing a further down the path. Maybe there are always a series of unexpected surprises on the horizon, and I only need to wait for them to unfold. Maybe, by keeping myself busy instead of taking more time to just look around, I miss out on what is already there.

The inconveniences of the night weren’t quite through.  When I went to get my rental car, the arrivals board showed my name, but told me to go to the counter instead of directly to a car.  I wondered why I wasn't pre-assigned a car (as I usually was).  The worker didn't know, but assigned me a FUN blue Ford Shelby Mustang as my rental for the trip! 

Once again, a minor inconvenience and slight delay turned into a great surprise (not quite on the same level as the sunset, but in business travel, I'll take what I can get…).