Hi y’all! I have a cool story I wanted to share with you guys today. It’s a little bit long, so bear with me, but like I said, it’s cool.

Okay, so when I was eight years old, my grandma (my mom’s mom) died from cancer. Before we go into that, let me tell you a couple things about my Nana:

1. She loved Louie Giglio. If you haven’t heard of him, check him out! He was a huge part of my childhood, we read his kids devotionals, my Papa and Nana loved his sermons, and Nana was particularly fond of a certain sermon of his called Stars and Whales.
2. She loved Stars and Whales. When she was sick, she showed everybody who came into the room that video and must have watched it a hundred times. She told her family (my mom, my uncle, my aunt, and my Papa) that she wanted it played at her memorial service when she died.

Now, if you don’t know what the Stars and Whales sermon is, check it out. Because it’s amazing. It’s a recording of the sound that stars make, the sound of whales singing, and they add in Chris Tomlin’s How Great Is Our God. They blend perfectly, and it’s proof that everything God created is truly made to worship him!

Watch the video below, and then continue reading. I really need you to watch the video to understand how freaking awesome this is, alright? I mean, if you don’t watch the video, it’s fine, but the video below basically sets the stage for what’s about to come, and it’s only 9 minutes long. I’ll wait. :)

Okay, so you watched the video. (Hopefully.)

If you’re like me, your first reaction is

WHAT THE FREAKING HECK?! That was INSANE. The fact that the God of the universe created stars and whales and made a song out of just those three things is incredible. I want to hear everything else. The trees, the wind, the ocean, people, the stars, the animals, the grass, the planets, the breathing, I want to hear it all in a symphony of God’s music. I hope that someday in heaven this is what we’ll be hearing.

Now, back to the story! So, my Nana loved this. (The video above is a shortened video, so check out the full version!) She played it for everyone, and then we played the stars, whales, and How Great Is Our God at her memorial service and everyone sang along.

Well, there’s another side of the story. Let’s hop on over to visit the dude named Louie.

He’s got a friend, (who happens to be the founder of Chick-fil-A) and the Chick-fil-A guy is good friends with Billy Graham. The Billy Graham. Now, Billy is dying, he’s stuck in bed, and Mr. Chick-fil-A visits him from time to time, plays music, worships, and prays by Billy Graham’s bed.

Louie has never met Billy Graham, and Mr. Chick-fil-A says, “Hey, my son is visiting his friend (Pete’s) mom’s memorial service…it’s only a couple hours away from Billy Graham’s house and I’m going to see him for a bit. Want to come along and meet Billy?”

Of course Louie is like, “Heck yeah!” This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! So they fly over to North Carolina in the private Chick-fil-A jet with Mr. Chick-fil-A’s son, they take their rental car, drop off the son at the memorial service in Weaverville, North Carolina, and then drive to Billy Graham’s house.

They worship, pray, talk, and hang out for a bit longer than they should have, and then the two of them drive back to Weaverville to the memorial service to pick up the son.

Outside the church, Mr. Chick-fil-A says, “Hey, I’m going to go say hi to Pete, give him a hug.” So he hops out of the car, walks into the church, and Louie gets in the back seat so that Mr. Chick-fil-A and his son can sit in the front when they get back.

After a few minutes, guests start coming out of the church for the after-thingy where people express their condolences to the family. Louie sees Mr. Chick-fil-A, his son, and another man come walking out of the church. He realizes that they’re coming towards him, so he gets out of the car and greets them.

The other man, Pete, says, “You’re Louie Giglio! My mom loved you so much, she played your Stars and Whales for everyone she met.” They hug, and Pete says, “Hey, can you come inside and give my dad a hug? He would really want to meet you.”

So they walk inside, through the line of people talking to the family, and to some people talking to Pete’s dad. Pete pushes them out of the way dismissively, saying, “Excuse me,” and exclaims, “DAD! It’s Louie Giglio!”

They do the same thing as Pete had, give hugs, talk about Pete’s mom, and then Pete’s sisters realize who he is talking to.

My mom kinda stares at Louie Giglio before telling my aunt, “Beck! THAT’S LOUIE GIGLIO.”

They both start talking to him and my aunt blurts out, “Mom would be so mad if she knew you were here and she couldn’t meet you!”

Louie hugs everyone in the family, my aunt, uncle, grandpa, my mom and dad, and me and my brother, and according to Louie, we’re all bawling. Eventually, Louie says that he has to leave. He’s supposed to speak at an event that evening and still had to fly back home. He says, “I gotta go.” I’m not sure what happened after that, (watch the video below, he says what he does) but he, Mr. Chick-fil-A and his son leave.

As they drive back to the airport, the dad and son are talking in the car and Louie Giglio is silent. He can’t get over what happened—he says that he thought this day was about getting to meet Billy Graham, but really it was about meeting the Morton family.

(Now, if you watch the video below, you can hear him tell the story himself. It’s so much better hearing it from him, and he adds details that I didn’t have. It’s set to start at 16:14 which is when the story starts, and the story finishes at 25:32)

So that’s the crazy story! Y’all, the way God entangles us in his crazy, perfectly wild story is freaking awesome. How cool is it that we weirdos get to participate in his goodness? It’s amazing. That’s all I have to say.

Well, thanks for reading this long post! I hope and pray that you are able to see God’s goodness surrounding your life today. :)
~Willow <3