The Journey to the Cross

 
I wanted to take a break from my EPIC story telling to share some words I came across while reading about God's Epic story.  I found myself falling short and was compelled to read at that moment.  I have this bible that my parents gave me for my birthday last year.  It's put together by Max Lucado and is called Grace for the Moment.  It has readings for 365 days starting with January 1st and ending with December 31st.  Each day takes a little from the Old Testament, Psalms, Proverbs, and then from the New Testament.  Each day's reading also has an excerpt from one of Max Lucado's many inspirational books and a single verse right above the excerpt.  I regrettably missed a few days over the weekend.  So tonight, as I begin the selection of passages for June 18th (in an attempt to catch up to today), the words really hit me and I felt a conviction to share what I read.  It's something that we may often forget in our daily lives and even as we worship.  Max Lucado puts it so well.  God really has given him a gift for writing; a gift for the right words.  The verse that was used above these words was:

"God said through the prophets that his Christ would suffer and die.  And now God has made these things come true in this way." (Acts 3:13)

and the words are these:

Jesus died...on purpose.  No surprise.  No hesitation.  No faltering.

You can tell a lot about a person by the way he dies.  And the way Jesus marched to his death leaves no doubt: he had come to earth for this moment.  Read the words of Peter.  "Jesus was given to you, and with the help of those who don't know the law, you put him to death by nailing him to a cross.  But this was God's Plan which he had made long ago; he knew all this would happen" (Acts 2:23).


No, the journey to the Cross didn't begin in Jericho.  It didn't begin in Galilee.  It didn't begin in Nazareth.  It didn't even begin in Bethlehem.


The journey to the Cross began long before.  As the echo of the crunching of the fruit was still sounding in the garden, Jesus was leaving for Calvary.
                                                                         from And The Angels Were Silent

The Epic Continues...some more...

It was a city.  At least it might as well have been.  The airport was HUGE!!!!!  I knew they were bigger than the Ford Airport but WOW!!!  Hallways and people and kiosks and tv screens with flight arrivals and departures...so much was so much going on, I didn't quite know what to make of it all.  And, as I stood there taking it all in, only one thought swimming through all three of our heads was clear enough, graspable, sane amidst all the crazy: we were hungry.  After walking for a little while, (the moving sidewalks helped!! More about those later.) and being told not to take the tram because that would bring us to far, only to walk to the spot were the tram would have taken us, we found a food court where we ate.  I had Chinese food and an A&W Rootbeer on tap...ah.  There's nothing quite like A&W on tap.  It brings me back to when I used to eat at the A&W back home during the summer's; days long since passed.  Days when I knew where I was and it felt like the friends that I knew then were going to be around forever...if only.

Our entire layover was two hours and some change, but by the time we got to the food court, ate, and figured out where we needed to go, it was time to go there.  I read some more of The Art of Racing in the Rain while we waited for our plane to arrive.  And soon, we were up.  This flight was longer, of course, yet it had less accommodations: beverages like the last flight, only one type of snack.  The plane was slightly larger than the last one.  Three seats on one side rather than just 2 seats on both sides.  I read some more book and caught some more of the view of the earth below.  I think I slept a little too.

When we arrived at Kansas City International Airport (in Missouri, not Kansas) and as we waited for our luggage, I didn't experience any of the infamous jet lag that everyone talks about.  My parents and I grabbed our luggage and took a shuttle bus over to the car rental agency.  Avis was where my gracious aunt and uncle had rented our car from.  They arrived before us and set everything up.  Apparently, it's not common practice to rent a car for someone else because the gentleman behind the counter was a bit confused as to why we were trying to rent a car in someone else's name.  Thanks to another Avis employee, whom I'm assuming helped Cathy and Bruce when they came through earlier, told the confused individual there was a contract in the back for my dad to sign.  So, we got that sorted out and then went out to get our car.  We had to explain the story to the guy outside but he said if we filled out paperwork that we were okay and let us go.

My dad drove.  I sat in the front at my mom's suggestion and she took the back.  I found the address to our hotel from the itinerary and punched it into the Garvin GPS that came with the car.  My dad was impressed that I was able to work the thing seeing as I had rarely used one before.  I thought it pretty intuitive but I guess that's the generation I'm in: able to pick up an electronic device and know how to work it within seconds.  And so, off we were, toward the hotel and the near end of the beginning of our trip.