By
Joe Gatuslao, author and evangelist,
the Philippines (Originally in English)
Charles
"Chuck" 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 six years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the
ordeal and now lectures on the lessons he 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, to congratulate people on something wonderful that has
happened to them, to give a compliment, or just to do something nice
for no reason.
As you go through this week, this month, and this
year, recognize people who pack your parachutes and send them your
gratitude. 
