Magic

Growing up, all I ever wanted was to be a princess.

Well, that and a pastor, but that’s another story for a different time.

Belle and Ariel were my favorites.  Many times my dad would pop in a Disney movie and my sister and I would sit in awe of the magic that played about on our television.  We would collaborate tea parties and play pretend, acting out what we had previously seen.  The romance, the fairy tales, the magic…. the lines between reality and make-believe were blurred in such an innocent and romantic way.

One of my good friends in Mobile constantly refers to her relationship with God as a romance.  I love that, and this week I can honestly say I understand what she means.

This week I desperately wanted to go home.  I’ve been homesick and missing my family.  As much as I wanted to hop in my car and make the 14 hour drive north, it just wasn’t doable financially, and I didn’t have a peace about it.

As Spring break started, I kept whispering prayers under my breath for spiritual refreshment, relaxation and increased intimacy with Jesus.  I wanted what David prayed in Psalm 139: 23-24:

“Search me, O God and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.  Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

And almost instantly after I prayed this for the first time, Christ pointed out my constant, idolized worry about finances….

After our adventures in Eufaula, Alabama, Jess and I traveled 7 hours to Lakeland, Florida.  Her sister, Rachel, and my best friend, Nate, both go to school at South Eastern University. We arrived Tuesday night, tired and discouraged.  We didn’t know what the week would hold for us.  We desperately wanted to go to Disney World while we were there, but we couldn’t afford it.  There had been rumors that we would be able to acquire free tickets, but nothing turned up.

So we prayed.

But it wasn’t the “Dear God, please help us go to Disney” type of prayer.

Nope.

It was the “God, we can’t do this financially, but you’re bigger than our finances and we want to see you make the impossible, possible.”
I think that prayer is the only reason for what happened next.

See, God loves to prove himself and show his love.  He loves to test our faith, and be tested as well.  Not as a negative, menacing thing, but as a means of increasing our intimacy with him.

And he did just that in the most beautifully romantic way.

The day before we had planned to go to Disney World we found out we got tickets.

But not just tickets, we got hopper passes, which meant we could go to any of the four parks for free.

Plus free parking.

Plus we were able to bring food into the parks for free.

I had never been to Disney World before and Christ gave me a free opportunity.

Ithought I would cry.

Throughout the week, meals were paid for, friends blessed us by buying groceries, we even were gifted extra gas money for the trip back….

God loves to make the impossible, possible.  But he will never force miraculous impossibility on us… we have to invite him into it.  He can’t catch us if we don’t leap.

Have you leaped lately?

Because after this week, all I want to do is leap.

(and YES, we were SO excited to go to disney that we made tshirts the night before 🙂