Meeting a President

photo credit Ansel Adams - wiki commons

We were saddened here to learn of the death of former President Jimmy Carter. Though we might not have agreed on several subjects, his work for Habitat for Humanity, his role brokering peace around the world, and his humble lifestyle of faith have earned him the respect of many of us. He is the only President I have ever had opportunity to personally meet. I wrote about that in a chapter, "First Class Surprise" for my book, Faith in the Fashion District—stories of God’s faithfulness during the years I spent as a buyer. I share an excerpt from that book today. I was traveling with Valerie, a buyer who was only with us for a short time as she was about to be married and move. I prayed something special would happen on a trip together to New York . . . and something did. 

“On a beautiful clear November afternoon, our plane taxied down an Atlanta runway and took to the skies headed for Manhattan. 

What happened next clearly fell under the category of the words in Ephesians 3:20― that God is able to do “exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.” 

It would be an understatement to say Valerie and her fiancé were politically oriented. Politics almost eclipsed everything else in their life. At the time, her soon to be husband worked on a congressional member’s political campaign, but I imagined that he might run for office himself in the future. And so, for a while, that’s what Valerie and I discussed then we both began reading our books. 

I looked up from my seat in coach and couldn’t believe who emerged from first class. 

Seriously? 

I nudged Valerie. ‘Is that who I think it is?’ 

She gazed up from the book she read and her face reflected the same shock I felt. She nodded, ‘It is.’

Another one of those somebody pinch me moments. 

‘Did you see him when we boarded?’ I asked. 

Valerie shook her head.                                                               

I closed my book. ‘He must have come in late to first class.’ 

The thirty-ninth President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, smiled his Plains, Georgia smile while shaking the hand of everyone on that 727. He had only lost his reelection campaign two years prior to current President, Ronald Reagan. 

Valerie and I looked at each other feeling incredulous. 

I can’t even remember whether Valerie pitched her tent in the same political arena as he did. I only remembered it didn’t seem to matter. 

Flanked by the Secret Service, he moved closer to us. I whispered to Valerie, ‘I prayed about this. I think God did this for you.’ I believed it. If anything would have made the trip special for her, it would have been meeting a political figure like President Carter. I didn’t think  I’d ever forget the experience either. I debated inside myself what brilliant thing I might say to him when he shook my hand, but ‘So nice to meet you,’ seemed all I could manage. He shook my hand and then grasped Valerie’s. 

Neither of us returned to our books the rest of the trip. We just sat there slack jawed trying to process what had happened. 

But as amazing as this, God wasn’t finished yet. 

Val only saw her mom and dad once a year because they lived in California. Her sister had just moved to New Jersey, and her dad was visiting her. I still don’t know how, but her dad and sister managed to meet us at LaGuardia in a very narrow window of time before her dad’s 7:00 flight from JFK back to California. 

A sweet reunion. 

That evening after arriving at my hotel, I reflected on a verse the Lord had given me early that morning, ‘Sing to God, sing in praise of his name, extol him who rides on the clouds; rejoice before him—his name is the Lord’ (Psalm 68:4). 

I had begun the morning with praise and if I ever sensed God riding on the clouds with me, it had been during that flight into New York City. I didn’t even know former presidents flew commercial. I don’t know what I thought they did, maybe private charters, but it seemed God, himself, had chartered this trip for us. Hanging up there at 35,000 feet, God spun an experience we would remember for a lifetime. 

Also, what grace Valerie had that glorious meeting with her dad and sister for a few moments. 

Only in my life for months, Valerie did move on after she married. I never saw her again. I have no idea where she is today, but I wonder if she, too, looks back on that day and sees the hand of God as clearly as I do. 

When we are diligent to pray, God responds to those prayers in ways we may not anticipate. Surprising ways. Beyond imagining ways. 

Certainly, the Bible is full of such occurrences. 

The Psalmist, David, who wrote about God riding on the clouds had begun life as a shepherd boy perhaps never imagining his life would encompass more than those Judean hills. God had bigger plans, and David’s faithfulness in watching over a few sheep was only a small beginning for his future―becoming a kind of president himself, King of all Israel. 

Of course, the rest of the buying trip would be uneventful compared to the experience of meeting a former president. 

But doing so forged in me the significance of prayer and the exceeding and abundant power of our awesome God.”

I’m thankful for this wonderful experience of meeting President Carter. Our prayers are with the Carter family.