The Airport as Liminal Space: When God Meets Us in the In-Between

 

I. The Nature of Liminal Space

A liminal space is the threshold between what was and what will be. It is the hallway between two rooms, the pause between seasons, the airport between home and destination. In these spaces, identity loosens. Certainties blur. We are no longer who we were, but not yet who we will become.

God often meets His people in these in-between places. They are uncomfortable by design, because transformation rarely happens in the familiar. In liminality, God dismantles the scaffolding of self-reliance and replaces it with trust.

The airport, as a modern metaphor, captures this sacred tension. It is a place of order and motion, yet also of waiting and surrender. We cannot reach our destination without releasing control to forces greater than ourselves.

II. The Scriptural Pattern of the In-Between

The story of Scripture is marked by thresholds.

• Abraham left his homeland without knowing his destination (Genesis 12:1–4). The promise began not in arrival but in departure.

• Israel wandered in the wilderness forty years, a nation suspended between slavery and inheritance. God used that waiting to form their identity as His people (Deuteronomy 8:2–3).

• Elijah fled to the desert after victory, where the still small voice taught him that God’s presence was not in power but in peace (1 Kings 19:11–13).

• Jesus spent forty days in the wilderness before beginning His ministry, and three days in the tomb before resurrection. Both were thresholds between old and new creation.

Every major act of redemption is preceded by a season of transition. God does His deepest work when movement feels restricted, because the stillness of the threshold teaches dependence.

III. The Theology of Waiting

Waiting is not spiritual idleness. It is participation in divine timing.
When we wait faithfully, we agree to let God complete what we cannot control.

In liminal seasons, God refines our appetites. The noise of achievement fades, and we begin to hunger for what endures. Just as travelers must pass through security, the soul must release what cannot board the next season: pride, bitterness, fear, and the illusion of control.

Waiting teaches discernment. It reveals what was merely motion and what was true direction. God never wastes a delay; He uses it to align our pace with His purpose.

“Those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength;
They shall mount up with wings like eagles.”
— Isaiah 40:31

IV. The Formation of Identity in Transit

Liminality is not only about movement; it is about metamorphosis. In the in-between, God redefines who we are apart from our roles and results.

Jacob wrestled with God at Peniel and limped away with a new name (Genesis 32:24–30). Paul spent years in obscurity after his conversion before becoming an apostle (Galatians 1:17–18). Each emerged from liminal time carrying a different identity.

The airport teaches this same truth in its own way. To travel, we must present identification—proof of who we are. Spiritually, God sometimes holds us at the gate until our inner identity matches His purpose for us. We are not cleared for departure until transformation has occurred.

V. The Spiritual Discipline of Letting Go

Every journey involves relinquishment. To take flight, we must trust forces unseen. The traveler entrusts themselves to the laws of aerodynamics; the believer entrusts their soul to the faithfulness of God.

Jesus said, “Whoever loses their life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 16:25). The paradox of liminality is that the more we release, the more we are carried. Faith is learned mid-air, not on the runway.

Letting go does not mean resignation. It means confidence that God governs the skies. What looks like suspension is often preservation. What feels like exile is formation.

VI. Application: Living Faithfully in the In-Between

1. Recognize your transitions. Name the seasons that feel uncertain. Awareness itself is sacred because it invites God into the process.

2. Stay present in the waiting. Do not rush what God intends to refine. Pray for perception more than progress.

3. Release the illusion of control. God is not late. He is exact. The itinerary of your life is written by eternal hands.

4. Expect transformation, not just resolution. The goal of liminality is not simply to get through it but to emerge changed.

5. Worship in the waiting room. Praise in uncertainty declares that God’s presence is not confined to outcomes.

VII. The Promise of Arrival

Every divine delay contains an appointed departure. The same God who commands stillness also commands motion. He never leaves His people stranded in transit.

When the appointed time arrives, He opens the gate with clarity and peace. Those who have learned to trust in waiting will recognize the voice that says, “Arise, let us go.”

“The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.”
— Psalm 138:8

Liminal spaces are the airports of the soul. They are not our home, but they are where heaven teaches us how to fly.