A snowy Monday in March. I'm sitting on the couch watching a light snow fall; it's pretty but at this point I'm hating snow and I have very good reason to hate snow. To be dramatic.... it was like a glimpse of doom 'n gloom end times chaos. To be less dramatic.... it was a bad day at the airport all because of a snowstorm....
We went on a fun little girls trip to Denver, kind of a last hoorah before Asher arrives. It was a week of seeing old friends, catching up with family, but the chaos didn't hit until Tuesday when we arrived at the airport to go home.
We took a shuttle at noon for our 1:30 flight only to discover it was delayed until 3pm. Ok no problem we're thinking... me, Mom and Linds, we can make fun out of this, it'll be good. 2pm rolls around, we already had our smoothie and French fries for lunch and listen to the overhead speaker... now delayed until 5pm. Oh great fun! We're still staying happy and positive, afterall, it's always an adventure in an airport. Did I mention I'm 7 months pregnant?
So we make a new plan... dinner at Pizza Hut at 3:30pm before our flight boards.
5pm rolls around..... delayed until 8pm. Grrrr... ok what's the next fun thing we can do while we wait?
7:15pm rolls around.... flight cancelled.
We're told to go down to ticketing to re-book or get reimbursed.
This line was long and slow. We waited 4 HOURS to get to a ticket agent (keep in mind the last thing we ate was Pizza Hut and I'm pregnant). We waited and waited and waited some more. The baggage wasn't coming, people were throwing tantrums, babies were fussing, it had been a long day, a loooong day, one man needed his medicine out of his baggage that wasn't coming, a mom gave up and left in a huff, police were called for backup twice and we're still waiting.
Waiting... (insert Jeopardy music because it was long and boring)
Only to discover there are no flights until SATURDAY.... it's Tuesday....there are no flights until Saturday? I had a bus ticket booked leaving out of Chicago the next day to go home, it can't be Saturday. That's when the doom 'n gloom end of times chaos broke out...
People desperately trying to get home, researching other options, booking outrageously priced tickets to get out, fights breaking out, screaming and yelling; we were witnessing a glimpse of what it looks like when our travel system fails.
This pregnant girl had enough. I nicely screamed (can you nicely scream?), well I screamed at the crowd to shut up and stop fighting. Something in me snapped and I let loose on the crowd in an attempt to bring back some sort of organized chaos. It was only seconds before someone got a bloody nose and I had to do something. By then it was 11:30pm I hadn't eaten since 3:30pm, I was shaking, tired and sore. Did anyone have consideration for the pregnant girl at a time like this? No! How about the mad who needed his medicine about to have a seizure? No!
In the midst of chaos... people are selfish and rude and inconsiderate.
So I had enough.
We got our money back and by then it was midnight so we went back to family's house to rest a day. We still had an hour drive. We booked a rental car and drove the 15 hours home on Thursday.
I don't want to be too dramatic here, but it has been making me think about end times chaos. When things are out of our control, travel is unavailable, people are clammering for help, things do get pretty heated. It's an "all about me" attitude. I've been wanting to research Revelations more, but I do know the Bible says things get crazy in the end times.
I was imagining this flight being cancelled, a hundred or so people trying to get home and waiting in this organized line, but eventually when people got tired and hungry (or in my case tired, hungry, swollen and sore), there was no organized line. We had other options to fly home if we were willing to pay but what if ALL the airlines were unavailable? What if we didn't have other options? Or the buses weren't running? Hotels closed down? What if all the restaurants were closed down the whole day? What if there was no running water in the bathrooms? Or it was full of thousands of people trying to get home?
We were just dealing with a hundred or so on one airline. I can only imagine what it would be like if all the airlines were cancelled.
And then it made me think about life after the chaos. Heaven and Hell. Two very real places. And if I was ready to face all that. Are you?
We got home safe this time but reality is end times are more in sight than ever and I want to be ready.
That's my chaotic airport story turned doom 'n gloom, but at the same time, it's very real with the healthcare system changing, President making mistakes, all the gun control debates, and natural disasters occurring more frequently... all points to end times and Jesus returning.
We can turn our eyes the other way and pretend it's not happening or we can turn our eyes to Jesus and seek out the truth.
Which way will you turn?
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