http://www.fox5atlanta.com/news/stranded-traveling-football-player-gets-help-from-total-strangers
Last Sunday, the Atlanta airport lost power for eleven hours. It happens to be the busiest airport in the world. You can imagine how crowded it was. You can also probably imagine thousands of angry and frustrated, stranded passengers. Keep it mind they couldn’t even buy so much as a bottle of water because all of the cash registers at the shops were down too.
This story reads like a recipe for disaster. I mean this is a apocalypse, movie type of scenario, but as I was reading about it, not one, but two stories jumped out at me that I just had to share.
The first one was that at about 10:00 pm, that evening, the mayor of Atlanta reached out to the management of Chic-Fil-A and asked for assistance. This company is well known for being closed on Sundays so that its employees can worship with their families. Their management is also known for being strong in their Christian faith and values.
I wonder why the mayor reached out to them.
They sprang into action asking employees who worked or lived near the airport to help. They ended up handing out over 5,000 sandwiches to hungry passengers. Corporate America rarely does much worth bragging about when it comes to helping others, but Chi-Fil-A continues to impress me because not only do they talk the talk; but they walk the walk.
My heart was already warmed as I read the next story. It had tears rolling down my cheeks.
There was a freshman football player, Luis Lebron, for Colorado State University, who was one of the stranded. After he waited for close to seven hours, he began walking, looking for a place to stay and something to eat. He had been to seven hotels that were completely booked. Does that remind you of any other people who were weary travelers and could find no room at the inn?
Luis just happened to come upon a live local newscast and he told his story. Within minutes, people began to show up to help him. He was offered food and a place to stay. He was so very thankful to the people of Atlanta. The newscaster said in all of his years doing the news, he had never seen anything like it.
As we journey through Advent, awaiting Christmas and what it means to us, may we seek out Immanuel, which literally means, “God with us;” and may we remember that He is always with us. May we be inspired to share the light when all seems dark.
A power outage inspired me. Perhaps you needed a little inspiration too.
Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂