By JACKIE TAYLOR | August 6, 2025

Doors closing

Many of you may have heard the saying “when God closes one door, He opens another” or something to that effect. Such a thing happened to me last weekend on a much-needed trip to Boston I had scheduled with a friend.

The trip was designed to visit an old friend, she’s 92 but she’s been a friend for 50 years, and lives in a nursing home near Portland, Maine. Time marches on and waits for no person and I figured I needed to book a trip to see her one more time, possibly, before her demise.

After mentioning the trip to my friend, she decided she’d like to see the area, and booked with me.

Thursday, 5:10 a.m. on Southwest Airlines, was our departure time from MCI – or supposed to be.

We got to the new airport, which I had never seen since the remodel, at 3:30 a.m.

We hit the gate, waited, they began boarding the flight, and, in typical Southwest fashion, passengers with tickets A1-30 were boarded first. We were B55 or thereabouts; so, we waited our turn in line. Passengers A31-60 were called up and everything stopped. 

At that point is when we learned the plane had a mechanical and a new plane was on the way from Dallas; passengers were unloaded and we waited.

Then, we found out the plane was canceled, as were many other planes due to weather in Boston.

We scrambled, found a plane that would get us there later that day – only to receive a text from Southwest that flight was canceled, as well. 

We, like a ton of other passengers, hit the gate agent desk to figure out how to get to our destination. We booked a flight.

Once time came, we boarded the flight, took our seats, buckled in and soon heard from the flight attendant that our connecting flight in St. Louis was canceled.

At that point, we received another text from Southwest that our new flight, via AI (artificial intelligence), was scheduled for 11 a.m. the next day out of St. Louis. 

Needless to say, the last place I wanted to stay overnight was St. Louis – leaving us approximately 36 hours to see Boston, Maine and my friend.

We even tried extending the trip to Monday – only to learn we’d have to be at Boston Logan Airport for a 5 a.m. Monday flight. Nope.

The gate agent at Southwest was awesome; she helped us think through a plan. We looked at departures to other locations besides Boston – all of which we discovered were messed up due to a huge storm sitting over Boston, New York and Washington D.C.

Boston had tornado warnings, the entire area was flooded; New York City train stations were under water with water literally blowing off manhole covers.

Five-inches of rain in one spot and five miles away one-half an inch caused the cancellation of 1,800 flights Thursday morning.

So, after trying several different plans of action, we decided that God had closed the door on our Boston trip. 

Needless to say, we were disappointed; but, upon reflection, I’m actually pretty excited that God intervened in the trip and I truly believe we were saved from something not very fun occurring. 

God wins; He has a plan and keeps us safe from things that crop up in everyday life.

So, we’ll reschedule in September and pray for better weather; meanwhile, I’m thankful for another day to live and see the sunshine. One closing door generally means a wider door at another time – thank you, Jesus!