I’ve always been a bit forgetful.
My mom created a mantra to recite whenever I left home to go back to school: “Keys? Wallet? Watch?”
Usually, I’d run back into the house to retrieve what I’d left behind. But now that I’m an adult, I can’t still rely on Mom.
Given the opportunity to travel to Israel on behalf of Guideposts, I was afraid I’d leave something important behind. I’d taken care of all the arrangements: filled out the forms the travel agent told me to, made a copy of my passport and faxed it to the airline and rented the international cell phone I’d need to call back home. So far so good.
My flight was on a Saturday night. Before I left the office Friday afternoon, I double-checked everything. Our office is closed on weekends, so leaving something behind would be very bad.
I printed out my plane tickets, itinerary and packing list and put them in a folder. I tucked my laptop, video camera and cell phone in my backpack. Pads of paper and extra pens too.
I sorted through all the papers on my desk, making sure there wasn’t something important hiding underneath. Finally, I was ready to go to the Holy Land.
Or was I? I shut down my computer, switched off my desk lamp and strapped on my backpack. I moved toward the door, but couldn’t walk through it. I stared at the folder in my hands, containing my tickets and the itinerary. Suddenly, I was overcome with fear that I’d be checking in at the airport and all the papers would fall out and fly everywhere.
A paper clip. You need a paper clip, I thought. Somehow, it was the only thing that made sense. I opened the drawer in my desk where I knew a few loose paperclips were.
I gasped. In the drawer a small, thin blue book lay beside the loose paperclips. My passport!
Maybe Mom can’t always look out for me anymore, but Someone certainly does.
