Blessed or lucky at Ben Gurion Airport?

No airport produces more anxiety in me than the Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. But this visit was either an opportunity for God to show off or I got really lucky. Who knew that a trip to the airport could become a theological exercise?!?! Leave it to me to complicate and overanalyze an everyday event. 

This view from the end of the long line. It looked worse in person!

I finished the school year on Wednesday and flew out on Thursday morning at 8:30.  I try to avoid morning flights out of Israel because it is truly a 4-hour airport. I get to the airport 4 hours early because it can take so long to go through all the security and check in lines. This has been an adjustment after living in Boise, where I left my house 1 1/2 hours before my flight, and Abu Dhabi, where 2 hours for an international flight was plenty.

Unfortunately, the 8:30 departure was unavoidable so I arrived at 4:30 a.m. Flights into and out of Israel require an extra layer of security--an "interview" (although it feels closer to an interrogation). This extra layer is before you check in for your flight, so the first thing you get to deal with at Ben Gurion Airport. They usually have 3 or 4 different lines of interview security set up in front of a set of check-in counters. Of course the line I needed to stand in was the absolute longest, going back almost to the airport doors. And of course the line was out of the barriers, which meant that at the entrance of the line into the barriers there was a big mob of people trying to cut the line. It was such a sinking feeling to see that. I contemplated joining the mob but I am not good at cutting or fibbing so I got into the line in the proper place and started zoning out.

After about 15 minutes and 6 feet an officially dressed woman walked by saying something in Hebrew that included the word "American". I asked the people near me what she said. They replied, "American passports follow her". Yay! She walked by me again and when I held up my passport she told me to follow her. She led us to a different security line that was about 1/3 as long! I am not going to speculate on the reason why American passports were pulled from the line (I think the reason may not be very positive), but I am super grateful for it. I felt blessed and reveled at the turn of events. Please note: the new, shorter line still took 45 minutes to get through!. 

A woman and a man behind me were speaking English so I butted into their conversation and we passed the time assuaging his anxiety about whether he was going to make his flight or not--he had only arrived 3 hours early. The "interview" this time was quite brief. He only asked me my final destination, who had packed my bags, had they been with me the entire time and if anyone had given me anything to carry. He even gave me directions to my check-in counter, which is hidden in a smaller room in the back. This was another unexpected kindness from the TLV airport.

Check-in for Royal Jordanian was only about 20 minutes and this is where I asked another security guy why everything is so slow at this airport. He said it is because they can't get people to work. That makes sense to me--I imagine it doesn't pay well and you have to deal with tired, angry people a lot.

The next miracle happened at the normal security check where you scan your bags. By now it was about 6 a.m. and I knew I was okay for the flight, so it didn't really matter if it took a long time to go through this security line, which was pretty long but moving at a constant pace. As I am snaking through the beginnings of the line, there is a lone scanning station off by itself that we pass, and it is not very busy. There is an official looking woman in front of the station letting people in or sending them on. I can't tell what the requirement is but she let the people in front of me go. I just stand there, making sure my passport is visible, until she looks at me and she lets me in. In about 3 minutes I am through security and ready to loiter until my flight boards!

After check-in but in the security line before I was allowed into the speedy line.

Ironically, this was the least anxious trip through Ben Gurion I have had. I guess that makes sense when you consider that I once didn't get to board because my Covid test result didn't come through; last time I was there my flight was oversold and I had to purchase another entire ticket to get out of Israel. Another time I forgot my Covid test result at home and had to have the taxi driver go back and get it (luckily that I realized it before we got all the way to the airport). So yeah, this time was pretty simple.  

So simple I started to feel like God was on my side. I felt chosen and super-blessed. That feeling continued until my friend who was supposed to leave at 7 a.m. told me her plane was cancelled, as there was a strike in Paris and she changed planes there. A few hours later she texted that she was sick with Covid and was going to stay in Israel another week until she recovered. Suddenly I was really uneasy. How could I be blessed and she not? Wouldn't that imply that I am somehow more favored by God than she? Another thought I had was that this is more evidence that it was a good decision to stay in Israel another year and clear evidence that she should be moving on.

Our My insecure human spirit seems to always need the reassurance that I am, in fact, chosen by my creator for love and favor. In two Bible studies this year, one on Matthew and one on Exodus, this idea of the favor of God has become even more convoluted. I used to think that I was blessed because good things happen; I'm not sure that I entirely don't believe that, because I have a pretty amazing life and to think that is because God loves me feels pretty good. However, that falls apart when "bad" things happen--suddenly I am not chosen by God and I have done something to lose the love of God. That doesn't work, either.

Of course there is also the possibility that God had nothing to do with Ben Gurion airport, and that the unfairness of the world worked in my favor on this one instance; that God still loves all of us and accepts us all and welcomes us all in the midst of the unfair world in which we live. This seems more likely and WAAAYYYY more uncomfortable. I am not sure where I stand on the favor of God; and where I stand to day is this: no matter what happens, can I find the places to be grateful and thank God for His blessing, even in the midst of hardship? Despite my lack of theological understanding I think we are called, at the very least, to gratitude.

Cleared, checked in and ready to loiter at the TLV airport!