We made it to Macy’s!

So many lights, so many people!

There are times when you wonder about “angels unawares” (Hebrews 13:2, KJV), right? Well, I do. During our recent trip to NYC, I just may have encountered an angel. Of course, that is not an indisputable truth, but it is what I believe. Hebrews 11:1 says “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen”.  On that December night in Macy’s Department store, I was sure hoping my sister would not get hurt, and I did not see this help coming! Understand, I intend no disrespect of the scriptures; I know the hope and evidence of Hebrews consists of our faith in the eternal God and His works.  So who am I to put a limit on what He can do! Let me set the background for you.

Kathy, Cindy, Tonya and I decided to take the evening on our own, leaving the Millennium Broadway via Uber to see Macy’s on Herald Square in beautiful Manhattan, New York City! The window displays were calling our names. I had a one-item list for what to do in NYC: buy a Macy’s ornament. Already having put in a full day of tour activities, we were depending on our excitement and Tonya’s Uber app to keep us going. Our giddiness was slightly entertaining, possibly annoying, to the driver, which fueled our fortitude all the more. Have you ever gone into a building only to find later you have no idea where you entered? That’s how our entire evening went! As we discovered the grand front entrance from somewhere else, I was lost in the dazzling lights and decorations; entire trees with snow-dusted squirrels poised overhead, a bit larger than life, competed with all the other glitz and glitter for my attention. Suddenly I was alone in a crowd so thick I couldn’t reach for my phone without bumping someone. Cell phones are great – we could be lost and found several times throughout the evening, with no panic nor problem. After finding ourselves hilariously incapable of utilizing the elevators, we searched out an escalator for a couple more floors. With our prized ornaments in Tonya’s capable hands, on we ran! Delirious with fatigue and fun, we were ready for the Starbucks floor – wherever that was!

That is when we came upon an escalator we hadn’t seen before; made of wooden slats feeding out of a set of brass fingers, eight to ten inches long. Tonya and Cindy led the way and stood one floor below calling, “come on, let’s go, before they close! You can do it, just step on it like any other” and other such cheerleading shouts, because Kathy had just shut down with panic. Pure fear. She was. NOT. GOING. In her defense, there was the memory of our mother’s escalator fall and emergency treatment in 2007; and the one we saw before us now was confusing – do I step on the brass fingers, or step across them onto the moving wooden slats? With big sister optimism, I said “I’ll go first and tell you which way works.” Prying her fingers from the rail, I stepped in front of her. At that time, NO one else was in sight, so I stepped onto the brass part with my right foot and as the escalator took my left foot on without me, I turned to her to say, “Don’t step on the brass fingers!”. There I saw a young man standing beside her and she was yelling, “No, I can’t do this! I’m sorry….excuse me!” Now, think about it, we’re in NYC, near 11PM, and already had been given some very strange looks in the aforementioned elevators….(another story); so wouldn’t you have expected him to be thinking, “sure crazy lady, just get out of my way so I can go”, or even worse! In her words, “It was truly an awful feeling…as I stood on a perch that might as well have been the top of Lady Liberty. I expected to turn around and see very annoyed people, but all I saw or heard was his soft spoken encouraging words and when that didn’t work, the soft touch of his hand giving me that trusting nudge I needed.”  What I witnessed was my sister gliding down the escalator behind me with this young man’s arm around her back, side by side. At this point I should mention that she had never had a panic attack before, so that explains why we naturally expected her to follow.

Having descended one level, we saw we still had another level to go downward to reach our destination (Starbucks, remember?) At the sight of another scary slatted escalator, Kathy cried, “NO, not another, I can’t!” to which the young man calmly said, “It’s okay, we’ll do this together.” Relieved to see them land smoothly ahead of me, I pointed to him and said, “Young man, if you don’t already work with challenged children, you should!” He smiled humbly and said “this is my stop too”, and left us. All I could think of was, Kathy had an angel to guard or guide or protect, I don’t know – you decide. The scriptures teach us that angels are simply God’s messengers. What was our message? Be not afraid? Good people are everywhere? Get out of Macy’s before they close? (just kidding with that last one) I think. Or was he an innocent bystander through whom the Lord protected me from having to call my brother-in-law to say your wife is in the hospital. On and on the surmising could go; I know however, what I saw, and heard. And I believe. Thank you God for that sweet young man who so gently and kindly took control, calmed Kathy, and got us to the Starbucks counter in time to collect our energy enough to go outside and wait for the next Uber ride. (With duck tape on Cindy’s mouth. Just kidding – Oh the tales to tell!!!)

Look around friends, notice when people need a helping hand, a calm word, or encouragement to go on. Be God’s messenger of peace. Remember that the Prince of Peace is always there and reaches out, at any season. Merry Christmas. Trisha