Who Packed Your Parachute?

Charles Plumb was a Navy pilot in Vietnam. After 75 missions, he was shot down. He parachuted into enemy territory and spent six years in a communist prison.

One day, after his release, Plumb and his wife were sitting in a restaurant when a man approached and said, “You're Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!”

“How in the world did you know that?” Plumb asked.

The man replied, “I packed your parachute.”

Plumb couldn't sleep that night. Today he says, “I wonder how many times I might have seen him and not even said ‘good morning.' After all, I was a fighter pilot, and he was just a sailor.”

This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. Take time to notice the people who pack your parachute. No one goes it alone—it's the high calling of our daily work.

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

(Gal. 6:2)

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• dignity
• unity