Disneyland.
They call it the happiest place on earth, what’s the truth? Most likely not, but it is pretty rad.
Last week Jake and I got our first disneyland passes as a married couple- we spent 2 days with our nephew and niece who are under 3 running around that insane place with all of the other parents and their children. We had an awesome time.
But one of the best parts about Disneyland, are the people.
As I walked I took to absorbing up the faces that passed by around me. Their hurry through life amazed me. Single parents holding children, generations of families and women, from grandmother, to daughter to baby girl each caught in the tension of all that Disney offered for them to absorb. I could sense on so many parents faces that they just wanted to make their children happy. But their faces were pained and stressed. Willing to do anything for their crying child to make them happy.
Do they succeed?
It made me wonder as we adventured through the park, if people really believed everything that Disney wished they would believed.
It made me wonder if they would come searching for happiness and be disappointed when they walked out of the gates with broken toys, crying children, exhausted significant others, and pockets that are significantly less filled with money than when they first came.
What is happiness? Is the search for it worth the disappointment that follows? Do they consider their state of happiness? If Jesus were to walk through Disneyland offering his gift of grace and salvation to all of the faces around him, would they even see his face? Or are they so busy finding their happiness in the animated characters that the one who created them is unseen?
These thoughts made me sad as I saw the hurt left on so many faces. Hopeless. Searching. But I also felt so empowered to spread the hope that I have in the Lord, because I don’t have to search anymore. Because I am free from my old self and am alive with the new self that can only come through the grace given by my savior Jesus on the Cross. Something so simple, but when people choose where they find their own happiness, they are left disappointed.
Our human nature only brings us so far. We must have something beyond our strength, knowledge, and sinfulness to pull us out of our pit.
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”
Eternal life!!!!
So much hope knowing that there is more than this. More than Disneyland! I’m finding joy today that a life with christ is better than Disneyland.
