Angels at IKEA

Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:1

It was just another task on the long list of things to be done. Going to get a TV stand to put on the gargantuan TV that came out of the Mother's house. So many tasks had preceded this one, that all days, for many days, had spilled over into one another. One day bleeds into the next in a seemingly never ending tasklist. It is a military type existence......Up on your feet, lace up your boots, be physically and mentally ready for whatever comes next.

She was running on empty, fumes of exhaustion left over from somewhere in time, when it all started. Through it all, she has kept her sense of humor and momentary lost her sanity. I have been helping out, holding her up.....praying her through it.

She was standing in the aisle of IKEA. Ready once again for a nervous breakdown because the tag on the TV stand didn't match the one on the display rack. Do you know how big IKEA is when you are exhausted? All the way back upstairs to the display, making sure she had the right tag...."Yep, there it is." All the way back down to the checkout. Again, error on the scan. Earlier she had led her Mom to a seat and told her to stay there until she came back.

Insert mental image here of elderly woman with Alzheimer's who walks extremely slow and gets turned around......a lot, in two floor big box IKEA. Another mental image of exhausted, stricken daughter with very large box that won't scan.....teetering on the edge.

Later she said, "I must have looked pretty bad, like I needed help......" She was standing glassy-eyed in the aisle staring again at the display, contemplating another long walk downstairs, when just then a kind angel appeared at her shoulder, "Can I help you, are you finding what you need?" What welcome words, they might as well have been coming straight from Heaven itself. He knew his job, he saw the mistake right away. He fixed the mess.

Ever had someone come and clean up the mess at a time when it seems all you have been doing lately is cleaning up messes? You never forget it.

All the while, she is hoping and praying her Mom stayed where she put her. She usually doesn't wander.....yet.

Then, another "angel" came when she wheeled the heavy box out into the parking lot. It was like he appeared from nowhere, she tells me later. She asks me if I sent him. She says, "I know you were praying. "

I said, "Yes, of course  I was."

Photo courtesy of http://thehalfwaypoint.net/2009/09/50-simple-ways-to-pay-it-forward/