🙌It's the Friday Call to Worship!🙌

Last week, my youngest sons, mom and I flew from Cape Town to Atlanta. We had no idea how my autistic son would handle the long trip. The kids didn’t sleep, but we stumbled through Atlanta’s airport with joy. One last security gate to go before a deep breath and a six hour layover.

That security line was like a scene from a horror movie. Hoards of Spring Breakers flights had been cancelled at the same time as a partial government shutdown. We walked into a huge room of at least 1,000 people, almost no employees, and immeasurable chaos. People were screaming, pushing, shoving - tired travelers and unpaid employees alike. By this time, we were in a medical emergency. My son was not coping well. Disgruntled employees said no one would help me.

My mom tried to protect my struggling son. I held my crying three-year old, wore two bags, rolled another two, and got in a five-hour security line going nowhere. The couple next to me had their own grandchildren and were headed home to Mobile, Alabama. He looked at me, took my bags, and said, “Stick with me. Let me be your grandpa. If I can do anything else to help you, I will.”

That day at the airport made it on national news. My son couldn’t endure. We left the line, found a hotel, and called an Uber. My grandpa angel handed me my luggage and told me he was praying for us. I could always come right back to him and get back in line if I needed to.

Exhaustion, overwhelm, and fear were off the charts that day. But the parts that will stick in my story is my mom sacrificing everything to get us there, getting us a hotel when we couldn’t carry on. And my mother in law spending eight hours in the car the next day to pick us up. And the grandpa angel - a stranger willing to use his full and tired hands to take a load off mine.

The world is full of brokenness and chaos. But we look above it - at people who love with family love. We worship the God Whose love made a way through the chaos and Whose family shows up in His name.

Listen to “Flowers” by Phil Wickham and Jamie MacDonald.