Lent Devotional 17

When I think about Holy Week it seems as if very little happened to Jesus between Palm Sunday and Holy Thursday. But that is simply not the case.

Yesterday, or Monday, Isabelle and I took a day away. We have Annual Disney passes and against my better judgment we joined the multitude at the Magic Kingdom. We arrived early and beat the crowds and we had a plan. Go immediately to Space Mountain. Get a Fast Pass for later in the day and then get in line and ride Space Mountain. This was the first time she had ever ridden the ride because it has been closed for renovation. She loved it. They have added video game consoles to entertain you as you wait in line and have upgraded all of the lighting. And we got really lucky and were on the ride in 30 minutes. Did I say she loved it?

Then the next part of the plan was to go across the park and ride Splash Mountain. We got there and it was closed because of mechanical difficulties. As we were leaving she noticed the logs were once again moving and she insisted that they were wrong and it was working. We went back and walked right on to the ride. Got in a log and began our journey to Brer Rabbit’s Laughin’ Place and the ride stopped working. We sat for awhile in the log and waited while Brer Fox and Brer Bear performed their mischief. When we finished they gave us a Fast Pass Wild Card for our inconvenience and we walked right onto Thunder Mountain. Not like I planned, but really nice to not have to wait so long. But we had some time before we could use our Space Mountain Fast Passes to ride Space Mountain.

So we got into the line for the Peter Pan ride. I suggested the Snow White ride with a shorter line, but it was to scary because of the Witch. So we waited, and we waited, and we waited, and we waited to ride a low tech flying ship through Neverland. Then we went back to Space Mountain and rode a high speed rocket through a dark building so she could scream at the top of her lungs.

I was reminded of 2 things. First well laid plans usually fall apart and you just go with the flow. Secondly, for a 7 year old roller coasters that fly up and down and around sharp corners are no where near as frightening as the thought of the Witch in Snow White. And if I am honest, things in the dark that that scared me once-upon-a-time, are as scary today as they were then.

On the first day of Jesus’ Holy Week he was returning to the city from Bethany. He was hungry and as he passed a fig tree that had no fruit he cursed that fig tree and it withered up. A seemingly spontaneous act that the disciples remembered so vividly they asked him what had happened.

Are you curious what Jesus said? If so read Matthew 21:20-22 or Mark 11: 20-25 and be surprised about what this seemingly spontaneous event meant to Jesus.

Have a great and Blessed day.

SHALOM,

Tom Mc