Favorite Cruise Boat Story #2...

So...  here's another cruise boat story.

About 10 years ago, the four of us jumped in the car in the wee hours to catch a flight to Florida for a cruise.  At the time, our daughter was 16 and our son was 12.  We did not take our passports.  Our passports were tightly locked up in the safety deposit box at the bank and we did not think of them in time...

We arrived at the boat and after many shuffles from this agent to that agent and aided with lots of smiling,  we sweet talked our way onto the gangway.  No problem!

It was a lovely boat and we were having a lovely time and all was going well, except for a rather disturbing message that we received repeatedly.  Someone from the records department wanted to see our passports.  And as we received more and more of these irksome messages, we wanted to see our passports, too!  But how?  We were on a boat far, far away.

These messages were especially disturbing because our son's ID was from his middle school and it was sans picture.  It did not even qualify as an ID!  At least our daughter, John and I had drivers' licenses.

We did not know how serious this all was until we tried to get off the boat. Those very serious, non-smiling officers in uniform were very daunting.  They absolutely could not understand how anyone let us get on the boat without passports.  And how could they possibly let us back into the United States without passports.

We just stood there... They looked at us and we looked at them... There was nothing we could do.  We knew we were U.S. citizens and I think they did, too.  We were just pitiful...

Finally, the lady officer rolled her eyes and threw up her hands and said, "Sing the national anthem."

I looked at John and the kids and said, "How many verses?"

We proudly sang...  in harmony...  I knew all 3 verses because I had taught elementary music for years and years and taught the Star Spangled Banner to hundreds of children.  The words to that song are in my soul forever!

At the beginning of verse 2, the uniforms waved us on while still shaking their heads.  Holding our heads high, we marched right into the United States.

This story illustrates a truth we all need to be reminded of:  I knew that song.  It was in my soul.  And that's how it should be with God.

            We need to get the Word of God into our souls.

                         We need to gather some experiences with God by spending time in prayer and worship.

                                      We need to seek and find the Father.

                                                   We need to learn to hear His voice.

May our lives be so full of God our Father that when the time comes for us to prove who we are and Who's we are, we are ready with God-filled words and God-filled actions coming from deep in our souls.