Having just ended the 50th Anniversary celebration of the University of Ghana Seventh-day Adventists ca few hours earlier, I boarded the TAP Air Portugal Airbus A320, I was given an aisle seat at one of the emergency exits. That meant it could not be reclined. Seated next to me was a woman with her baby of a few months old. This baby cried more than halfway through the the 5 and hour flight from Accra to Lisbon. And to worsen the case we could hardly move just because the space between our seat the one in front of us was just too narrow.
Meanwhile, the passenger in front of her had reclined his seat so low she could not even bend over to take her baby’s food to feed her. No amount of pleading would move this middle-aged man to raise his seat an inch. His argument was very simple. He had paid for his space and no one could tell him what to do.
My colleague passenger got so frustrated and fatigued that she almost broke down in tears. She tried different ways to ease the physical aches and pains she was suffering. She squatted; she stooped and even knelt in her seat just for a momentary relief. She exclaimed hopelessly, “this is too much for me”!. I can’t do this anything. Sadly, her attempt to call an already unfriendly flight attendant went rather very sour. She sure was at the breaking point of her life. And I? Already worn out from the previous weeks activities, not able to recline my seat and having no meaningful rest coupled with a baby determined to give none of us a peace mind, I was also nearing the breaking point of my first flight ever on TAP Air Portugal.
All of a sudden, the little baby stretched forth her hands towards me. She wanted me to carry her. I obliged. And in barely 5 minutes, she dozed off peacefully to the admiration of her mother and passengers alike. Within a 15minutes her mother was deeply asleep even in her uncomfortable seat. I bored this baby in my arms pacing the aisle of the plane for nearly two hours until there was announcement to sit with seatbelt seated for landing.
When we finally landed at Lisbon Airport very early in the morning, I helped carry luggage to her terminal. I stood and watched her go through immigration before I turned towards mine. After all, I had a few hours of waiting in transit. Just then I saw her fighting her tears as she waved thankfully towards me. It dawned on both of us that we didn’t asked for each other’s name nor even exchanged contacts. Sadly she was already on the far end of the security and immigration barricade. I smiled and waved back trying to say, “Don’t worry I will definitely meet you somewhere again. If not here on earth, mostly hopefully in Heaven with your little baby! I only did what I was sent to do”. For a moment I felt I was an Angel sent on Flight TP263 to rescue a struggling mother and her baby! We both stood staring at each other for a few seconds before finally going our separate ways.
As I turned towards my terminal, the refrain of a favorite song caught my attention:
See over there, there's a mansion, oh, that's prepared just for me,
Where I will live with my savior eternally.
No more night. No more pain.
No more tears. Never crying again.
And praises to the great "I AM."
We will live in the light of the risen Lamb. (“NO More Night”, David Phelps)
There is trouble everywhere in the world. And nearly everyone is at the breaking point of their lives. Be it the baby, the nursing mother, the passenger, the flight attendant and even the preacher, we all do find ourselves at the breaking point of our lives journeys at one moment or the other. Is it not amazing how one little acts of kindness can bring comfort, peace and restfulness to a world reeling in pains and discomfort. And this is my calling. What is yours?
I am by this reminded that my calling is not only limited to the pulpit or the four corners of a church. It is unequivocally clear, “Go ye therefore into the WORLD…’ Matthew 28: 19, for we are His hands, His feet, and His mouthpiece sent to proclaim Hope Beyond the Breaking Point!
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