Who Packed Your Parachute?

Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam.
> After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed
> by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected and
> parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured
> and spent 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison.
> He survived the ordeal and now lectures on lessons
> learned from that experience.
>
> One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting
> in a restaurant, a man at another table came up
> and said, "You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in
> Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk.
> You were shot down!"
>
> "How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.
> "I packed your parachute," the man replied.
> Plumb gasped in surprise and gratitude.
>
> The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!"
> Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't
> worked, I wouldn't be here today."
>
> Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man.
> Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he might have looked
> like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back,
> and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many times I
> might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning,
> how are you?' or anything because, you see, I was a
> fighter pilot and he was just a sailor."
>
> Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent
> on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship,
> carefully weaving the shrouds and folding the silks
> of each chute, holding in his hands each time
> the fate of someone he didn't know.
>
> Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing
> your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides
> what they need to make it through the day. Plumb
> also points out that he needed many kinds of
> parachutes when his plane was shot down over enemy
> territory-he needed his physical parachute, his mental
> parachute, his emotional parachute, and his
> spiritual parachute. He called on all these
> supports before reaching safety.
>
> Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us,
> we miss what is really important. We may fail to
> say hello, please, or thank you, congratulate
> someone on something wonderful that has happened
> to them, give a compliment, or just do something
> nice for no reason.
>
> As you go through this week, this month, this year,
> recognize the people who packed your parachute.
Then Thank the Lord, that HE cares for you and that
HE is the one that ultimately packed your parachute!