God, send me angels....

Last month I wrote about a human-angelic experience I had in an ICU right before my first wife Ellen passed away. Today I bring you a great and inspirational story from my good friend Eileen.

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I was flying home from a great week with my Florida family. My emotions were mixed as we said good-bye. It was hard to leave them, but I was really ready to be home again; ready to be back to my husband and my own house.

I’ve flown alone before and everything has always gone well. Still, each trip brings a bit of anxiety. Being wheelchair bound, I am totally dependent on airline and airport personnel to get me on, off, and down long concourses to my next plane. I always wonder, “What if I miss that connecting flight…?” I was about to find out.

My first flight had a problem docking to the jet-way. Many minutes were lost and time was already short. The courier pushing my wheelchair hurried my through the airport as fast as he could, but I was too late. I missed my flight! The courier took me to Customer Service. The next available flight home wouldn’t leave until the following morning. They offered me a hotel room, but without someone to help me, that was an impossible prospect. I knew I needed to stay in the airport.

So, there I was, sitting at my morning gate in a manual wheelchair that I was not strong enough to move. I was confident that I would be OK; that I could sit there for 12 hours and wait patiently. I called Marvin to tell him my situation. Then I began to talk to God. I asked Him to send me angels to keep me company.

Marvin called Jason (Eileen's son) with the news. Jason and Nicole prayed. Nicole asked God to send me angels. Marvin called his Mom. She prayed with Marvin over the phone and asked God to send me angels. Then God began to move! Marvin’s Mom called her niece, Martha. Martha called her daughter, Melissa, who lives in southern Georgia. Melissa called her friend, Missy, who lives in Atlanta. All these followers of Jesus were determined to find a way to help me. Phone calls followed into the night as they went through possibilities.

It was Missy and her friend, Christine, (two women I had never met) who finally drove an hour to the airport late that night. Through sheer determination they finally found someone who could and would find me and push me out of the secured area to them. Missy and Christine were my angels. God had answered our prayers.

Missy and Christine are both mothers of young children who sacrificed a night’s peace and rest and their own priorities to answer God’s call and meet my needs. They spent the night with me, helping me to the bathroom, providing food, and having a lot of fun conversation. To me it seemed like a party! We had fun! In the morning they got me back to my gate before they said good-bye and returned to their families. After they’d gone I realized that I didn’t even know their last names.

It never occurred to me before that night that God uses people to do the angel-thing sometimes. It’s a lesson I want to remember. I’d really like the privilege of being someone’s angel someday. I hope that when the opportunity comes, I will gladly make the sacrifice. Thank you, Missy and Christine!