Christ Remains Constant

by

WAITING IN THE LOBBY

An extra hour opened up in my schedule while on base this morning. I didn’t have much time, so I walked down to a little coffee shop with a seating area that looks out to the base passenger terminal and down into the lobby of the military hotel.

It’s a unique spot in the world.

From my vantage point, I could see the chairs in the lobby of the hotel filled with soldiers in uniform, backpacks beside them, waiting for their plane to be refueled and on their way to far off places.

A few minutes later, I heard a lady in an excited voice say, “There’s daddy!” Two little girls waited, jumping and laughing, at the top of the stairs as their dad came up. A few hugs later he greeted his wife and grabbed the girls’ hands. They walked away, the wife following a little behind with the stroller.

A good friend of ours and her kids came up the stairs. They were trying to fly home on a Space Available flight from Ramstein to Baltimore by way of Alaska. Sound a little crazy? Our military families have the benefit of flying on military flights as space is available. The route home is always interesting. This family had tried to get on a flight all day yesterday and had been waiting since early morning hours today.

TRANSITION IS CONSTANT

One thing I know to be true of the Kaiserslautern military community is that everyone is always in a state of transition. People come and go at a rate that will make your head spin.

Active duty husbands and wives both come and go on deployments, trainings, and routine duties that take them all over the world. Families travel back and forth to the States to see family, trying not to miss important life events. When the whole family happens to be here at the same time, they travel on long weekends to make the most of their European assignments.

CHRIST IS STABLE

In all of this activity, one of the beauties of a hospitality house is stability. We try to be the steady people and place in an ever-changing environment. Our stability has a noticeable impact on our little community.

We are a group of believers whose foundation is Christ who provide for each other security, rest, and resolve in an otherwise insecure, exhausting, and chaotic environment.

And what a reflection this is of the gospel—that Christ is our rock and refuge and never-changing friend. Because Christ is stable, consistent, reliable, always advocating, never-sleeping, and secure, we can be at rest and secure in His great love.