All aboard! Whether or not you have had the opportunity to ride on a train, you can recognize those words….All aboard! I remember our family’s first train ride and the excitement in our son (who was 5 at the time) when we saw the train pull into the station. I remember seeing his eyes light up with disbelief as the man jumped off the train and yelled All aboard! “They really do say it mommy!” said my five-year-old. He was excited to hear the words…All aboard!
The Christmas season previous to our train trip, we had watched the movie Polar Express multiple times. As you know this book/movie is about a boy who boards the train to see Santa, but he doesn’t believe. Throughout his journey he meets some unlikely characters and continues to question Santa’s existence even though it is obvious to everyone else on the train. Everyone who boards The Polar Express is given a ticket. Throughout the journey the conductor takes the ticket and punches out letters in each child’s ticket. Finally, at the end of the movie the boy chooses to accept Santa as real and then he looks down he sees the word “BELIEVE” punched out on his train ticket.
This story has many implications in our life on earth. You see we all are given a ticket. We all are on a journey. A journey to discover Truth, divine Truth. Truth in which we stop questioning God’s existence. Truth in which we accept Jesus Christ as the son of God. We accept his unconditional love, forgiveness, grace, and mercy. He is not just a infant in a feeding trough. He is not just a Jewish teacher who died a Roman style death. Jesus Christ is Truth. You need to believe that!
If you know me or have read any of these devotions, then you know I LOVE music! And more than my love for music is my love that God loves me SO much that he would chose to speak to me via music. I love it when God coordinates what I just read in scripture with a song. This recently happened to me. As I was reading through Psalms in the Message verison on the Bible App on my phone.
“I am happy from the inside out. You have canceled my ticket to hell–that’s not my destination!”- Psalms 16:9-10 (Message version)
After I read those words, I tuned my phone to Slacker radio station and jumped up and down with excitement (like my 5-year-old did) when I heard the song J-Train my TobyMac. I laughed, I knew this was God’s way of smiling down on me that day. Once again, I found myself dancing uncoordinated praise to a Holy God as I sing along to the lyrics “I got a ticket! I got a ticket! I got a ticket to ride to the other side!”
We all have a ticket going one of two places.
My ticket to hell has been canceled! And yours can be too! Praise the Lord!
~April
“May you and I be mutually encouraged by each others faith!”- Romans 1:12
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