Traveling Mercies


Yesterday as I traveled back from San Diego, my first flight was delayed because of mechanical problems and I missed my connection in Dallas. My second flight was into a storm, and we circled around Nashville skimming the thunderheads for an hour before the pilot found a little window through which we could land. I’ll have to say that I was nervous and prayerful. But we made it safely, praise the Lord.

My son-in-law Ethan is being crammed into cargo planes as he slowly makes his way home from Iraq. My daughter Victoria is on her way to Jackson, Mississippi, with half her kids (the other half are with Katrina and me). And our daughter Grace and her family are in Florida on vacation, and traveling later in the week to Roan Mountain for a few days.

As so many of us are on the road, I’m reminded of an old phrase once widely used among Christians: “Traveling Mercies.”

Let’s bring it back. Some of these old phrases from prior generations are still apt for us in the 21st Century. May the Lord grant us all “traveling mercies.”

Psalm 121 is called the Traveler’s Psalm.  It ends with the words: “The Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.”

God, grant it.