My hands and heart froze.
I had no business
flying with so little experience.
I never overcame the fear of flying.
The employees at Bowmen Field Airport
called me white knuckles
because my knuckles were so
white as I held so tight to the flight controls.
They told me to relax,
that crashing is not a bad way to die.
They continued, it happens quickly–
You die within a short time if the propeller stops.
Yes, they were joking.
My next time flying
the propeller sputtered, then stopped.
Time stood still.
Verses from a song
I often heard in Sunday School as a child
flooded my mind.
I think I could almost
hear my Sunday School classmates
sing it right there in the plane.
Of course it was only my memory
from years past.
The song goes like this:
“Jesus loves me, this I know
for the Bible tells me so.
Little ones to him belong;
they are weak but he is strong.”
Suddenly I felt a presence within the plane
the presence filled
the co-pilot seat next to me.
I remember saying outloud
“Jesus, is that you,
are you with me Lord?”
Words I once read
in the Bible flashed across my mind —
“The Lord is my Shepherd
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in
green pastures.”
At that very moment my eyes glanced
downward — I had glided over farmland.
I remembered during my first lesson
I was told my plane could glide
for several minutes until I located
a safe place to land and to always look
for a patch of farmland.
I was flying a Cessna 152
with a propeller that stopped spinning.
That moment is frozen in my mind.
I slowly and gently glided
onto a clear level area on the farm land.
When I stepped out of the plane
the words from the 23rd Psalm
flowed through my mind again —
“The Lord is my Shepherd
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down
in green pastures.”
