Moses and Mickey Mouse
How to Find Holy Ground
in the Magic Kingdom
and Other Unusual Places
by David W. Jones
d INTRODUCTION c
MOSES AND MICKEY?
My life’s lessons come in parallels, one thing set alongside another.
A summer ago, my family took a trip to Disney world. While reflecting on our vacation, I read through the story of Moses. Family trip and sacred scripture spoke to each other in interweaving dialogues inside my head and from each I gained insight about the other.
I was instructed on Moses’ call at the burning bush by my daughter Abbie’s sense of wonder on the Peter Pan ride. I gained insight into Moses’ anxiety about returning to Egypt from my son Nathan’s terror on the Rockin’ Roller Coaster. I learned about Moses’ need to adapt on his journey from my daughter Cayla as we nearly suffocated while riding Dumbo. I learned even more from my wife Carrie and our nephew Jared, apparently Bible scholars all.
From Moses’ encounter with God, I learned how any place, from Magic Kingdom to state park, from far off Florida to nearby Tennessee, can be holy ground.
In the pages ahead, I offer reflections on Moses, narratives from my family’s trip to Disney World, and some counsel on how you too can not only learn from life, scripture, Disney rides and Disney movies, but find God around every corner, in every shrub, and on top of every hill. Holy grounds do abound, and the purpose of this book is to help you see them. (You may want to go ahead and take off your shoes now. Yep, right now, below your feet, holy ground.)
I am aware that the book’s sections may read a little like watching television with someone else controlling the remote, like channel surfing between Discovery Channel documentaries on ancient Egypt interwoven with old Disney movies starring Kurt Russell and PBS marathons of Wayne Dyer lectures. Even though each segment may at times seem random, by the end I hope you’ll have a clear sense of each chapter’s theme and lesson.
Enough with the orientation. Let’s begin, starting back a long time ago, in a land across the ocean, with a king.
d PREFACE c
MOSES AND PHARAOH
A new king arose over Egypt
This new king, called Pharaoh, was an anxious king, worried about enemies outside and inside his country.
Centuries before this particular Pharaoh came to power, a family moved into Egypt
The Israelites, though forced to labor for the Egyptians, kept prospering and growing. Pharaoh then concocted a plan to kill all the newborn male babies.
About this time, a woman gave birth to a son. She, like others, was afraid of Pharaoh and so she hid her son for three months. Even though she tried to explain to her infant about the frightful Pharaoh, the baby didn’t understand. He cried just like all babies do, even those whose lives are in danger.
To protect him, she made a basket, waterproofed it, placed him among the reeds in the river, and sent her daughter to watch over him.
Then, in what was possibly the mother’s plan all along, Pharaoh’s daughter came down to bathe at the river. She saw the basket and had a servant retrieve it. She opened the basket, saw the baby crying, and immediately bonded with him.
The baby’s sister popped up and said, “I know a mother that would help you take care of him.” The princess liked this idea, and hired the baby’s mother as a nanny.
The princess called him Moses which means drawn from out of the water.
Moses grew up in Pharaoh’s house yet didn’t forget his connection to the sons and daughters of Israel
Moses thought he had done enough to keep the murder a secret, but word got out. When Moses found out that Pharaoh was going to have him killed, Moses fled Egypt
He settled in the land Midian
Moses relaxed. No more tension between living in the house of Pharaoh and his Israelite heritage.
All was well. . .
Then God showed up.
d LESSON ONE c
Seek wonder. Find wonder.
MOSES’ WORLD
Exodus 3: Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. He looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.”
Moses had a cushy job. His father-in-law was a powerful man in the region, and Moses, a once-somebody in Egypt now son-in-law in Midian, was hiding out from the law, veiled as a sheep herder, tending the flocks of his family
All was well.
Then God showed up.
Moses had seen a lot of bushes, but the bush that caught his eye, that captivated him, that drew him in, was different. This was a bush ablaze, a shrub afire, burning, yet not consumed.
‘What?’ Moses thought staring at the fire.
‘What’s going on with that bush? Why hasn’t it burned up?’
And he went to see.
God in heaven must have been saying to the angels, “Watch this,” as God, like a fisherman with a never-fail bait, cast this shrub ablaze in Moses’ line of sight, watching, as Moses drew closer, drawn in by curiosity, sucked in by mystery, captured in intrigue.
God smiled, coaching this clueless shepherd, “Come on, Moses, take the bait.”
Moses did. Then, from the lure alight, God spoke, “Moses, take off your shoes. You’re standing on holy ground.”
Moses’ life, and the world, changed.
Welcome to Holy Ground, Moses.
MICKEY’S WORLD
As soon as the school calendar paroled my children: Cayla, the eldest, fourteen; Abbie, nine; Nathan, seven; and our nephew, Jared, twelve, we packed ourselves into the van along with a sizeable portion of our belongings and headed to Florida for several days at Disney World. It turned out quite a few other people had the same idea.
As I moved through the masses of the different parks, I was amazed at just how many people were there. I did quite a few genetic observations while people watching, “So, this man and this woman produce these offspring. Fascinating.” Or, “Wow, you picked him for a mate. Was there alcohol involved?”
Then I asked myself, “Why do so many people come to Disney World again and again, bearing the cost, the hot Florida sun, the miles to get here, the congestion?” The answer seemed and still seems obvious – wonder, collective, shared, wonder.
Wonder is the Holy Grail of the Magic Kingdom, draped in a surprise, a thrill, nostalgia, or sweet sentiment. Whatever the form, Disney packages wonder, and our hunger for wonder draws Disney lovers from across the globe, into the parking lots, on the trams, through the gates, in lines, and on ride after ride.
I experienced that wonder on our trip to the Magic Kingdom. The rides and my children showed me the way, especially on my favorite ride, Peter Pan.
Peter Pan called out, “Here we go!” as our pirate ship left the boarding station with the long line of people behind us. Abbie yelled, “We’re flying!”
We sailed into the bedroom of Wendy, John, and Michael Darling
“We’re flying! Dad, how do they do this?” Abbie asked.
I started to answer, my hand pointed up at the rail above our heads which attached ship to ceiling track, but I resisted, certain she’d figure the mechanics out soon enough. She did. She looked up on her own, saw the rail, but chose to ignore it as we flew like Peter, Wendy, John, and Michael, sprinkled with pixie dust, thinking our happy thoughts, through the bedroom window and into the night sky.
“It’s London!” Abbie squealed as we sailed around Big Ben.
“The cars!” she cried out pointing to pairs of lights moving along dark stripes on the floor.
I looked. I saw. The dark stripes became roads and the pairs of lights became headlamps. My daughter spoke. I heard her voice. And I believed.
She did for me what Peter did in the book, the movie, and the ride. She took this aging child, struggling to find his imagination, and gave me wonder. She took this land-locked, bed-bound child, and helped me fly.
By the end of the ride, with her as my guide, I heard the tick-tock of the pirate-hungry crock, fought with Hook, ran with Smee, danced with Tiger Lilly, and swam with mermaids. I was young again; I was amazed; I was flying.
Like my daughter, I had seen the rail, chosen to ignore it, and was flying. With her, I was sky high, and it was wonderful.
YOUR WORLD
G.K. Chesterton said, “The world does not lack for wonders, only for a sense of wonder.”
Though Chesterton’s observation is a century old, it is clearly applicable today. For us, people of this new millennium, wonders abound, but we, the overly stimulated under impressed, have a tough time seeing them. Anthony De Mello described our lives with this image,
A group of tourists sits in a bus that is passing through gorgeously beautiful country; lakes and mountains and green fields and rivers. But the shades of the bus are pulled down. They do not have the slightest idea of what lies beyond the windows of the bus. And all the time of their journey is spent in squabbling over who will have the seat of honor in the bus, who will be applauded, who will be well considered. And so they remain until journey’s end.
As De Mello illustrated, our problem is not that our lives are devoid of wonders; our difficulty is just that we don’t see them; our shades are down, our eyes blind. We live inside boxes, caught up in competitive, hierarchical scoring games, devoid of awe, our once vivid imaginations paralyzed in routine, left behind as part of a tragic flaw in the process we call maturing.
Do you remember when you outgrew your child-like imagination? When you lost wonder as an approach to life? When you looked at a Tonka Truck and saw only something to trip over? When you looked at an action figure or a cherished friend and saw only a doll or a stuffed animal? Do you remember when you threw away toys because you didn’t want others to think you childish? Do you remember when you grew up and pulled the shade over your eyes to wonder? Do you remember when your imagination grew numb from inactivity or did it just happen over time?
Walt Disney dreamed of parks that would pull us out of our coma-like stupor, which would allow us dreams, laughter, and joy. Disney said, “I am interested in… bringing pleasure, particularly laughter, to others.” His goal was to give people a place where they could rediscover their sense of child-like wonder. He said of his parks,
To all that come to this happy place: welcome. Disneyland is your land. Here age relives fond memories of the past, and here youth may savor the challenge and promise of the future. Disneyland is dedicated... with hope that it will be a source of joy and inspiration to all the world.
Disney parks draw so many people in because they systematically pull wonders together in one accessible place. They call to the deep part of our soul lost in blind stupor.
Disney and his descendants can teach churches a lot about burning bushes. As a pastor, I can say from the inside of congregational life, Disney recognized what churches too often haven’t: people are better led than nudged, better a carrot than a cattle prod. Whereas the church has too often used guilt to motivate people, God entices with wonders; and as with Moses, God’s doorway to the divine is not a shove of shame but the draw of wonder. Wonder attracts. Moses was lured into a holy quest through a tease, an enticement, a lure from God, and Moses responded in wonder.
Wonder can be lost, but it can also be found. We can catch wonder. Our family found wonder on our trip to Disney World and on our way home. In search of adventure, on our drive back toward Tennessee, we left Highway 75 in Florida and went to Ichetucknee Springs State Park. After a swim in the cold spring, we rented six inner-tubes (for only twenty dollars) and floated down the Ichetucknee River. We took our swim goggles, frequently left the tubes, and floated along under water checking out the sizeable trout.
At one point, as I was floating along submerged, I came upon a group of three trout, the largest almost a foot. I startled them. Then I had an experience I have never had before, the largest fish bolted when he saw me, and I heard him. I heard him move. Whether he bumped another fish or had some finger knuckle popping sound from his spine, I know not, but I heard him. I had never before heard a fish underwater. I was amazed.
This trip reminded me of a commitment I set for my role as father, to do my best to encourage in my children a sense of wonder. Albert Einstein said, and I believe it is especially true with children, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Facts, truth, and reality come soon enough for growing children from stern teachers and the harsh lessons of life. However, lessons in wonder may or may not be part of the curriculum. So why point out the man behind the curtain; why roll out the blue-prints for the universe as we understand it; and why not instead, if you can, help them simply live, if only for a moment, in awe?
The goal is simple, when the opportunities arise, encourage wonder instead of stifling it. For example, with each child, when they have looked out the window of the car or van and said, “Dad, the moon is following us!” I have responded with a simple question, “You think so?” They have never asked, “Dad, is the moon following us?” which opens the door for an answer, but always declared, “Dad, the moon is following us!” So my response is to let them alone, let them marvel at the moon for a while rather than reduce the wonder of astronomy into a you-don’t-get-this-yet-but-you-will-one-day lecture. Marveling at the moon is the best beginning for a life long education in astronomy. As their parent, why not let them live in a world where the moon follows them around (as long as they aren’t afraid of it), why not let them live in a world view where the universe is overly friendly? Won’t life correct them soon enough?
Einstein’s full quote is,
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.
Whether at Disney World or riding in the back seat of a car, encouraging wonder in children helps the young find a path beyond immediate answers to life-long exploration and learning where not only are they embraced by the universe, but they embrace the universe, experiencing wonder daily.
Socrates said, “Wisdom begins in wonder.”
Consider where our great, life-changing inventions started, not for a desire to know facts, but in a quest to experience wonder. Wilbur and Orville Wright wanted to build a plane, not because they wanted to know how to fly, but because they wanted to fly. Thomas Edison invented the light bulb because he wanted to see in the dark. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone because he wanted to talk to someone far away. Neil Armstrong wanted to be the first man to walk on the moon, not just to prove that it could be done, but to do it, to experience it, to live it.
Wonder is an experience worth seeking, because of what it does to us, because it transforms us, as it did to Alice in Lewis Carrol’s Alice in Wonderland. Carrol wrote,
For you see, so many out-of-the-way things had happened lately that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.
Wright, Edison, Bell, or Armstrong were no different from Alice. They were caught up in wonder and its pursuit. They were transformed, and so went the world with them.
What about you?
To you, my friend, I say, seek wonder and you’ll find wonder! How can you get to Wonderland? The same way Alice did, she saw a white rabbit and chased it. How can you find God’s adventure for you? Like Moses did, he saw a burning bush and went near it. How can you go to the moon? Like Armstrong did, he saw the bright orb in the sky and went after it. Follow their example: chase the white rabbit, explore the burning bush, reach for the sky. Seek things that make you go “Hmmm.” Seek things, experiences, books, people, art, that make you go “WOW!” With the many addictions in our culture, choose this one – become addicted to wonder. Be curious. Perhaps wonder will lead you to figuring out how a ride works, what makes a cloud cry, what makes a rocket reach, what makes a swing fall back to earth. Ask. Ponder. Query. At the heart of any question is an experience, a quest. Reach. Seek. Grasp. And as often as you can, fly!
Quasimodo, in Disney’s version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, gave us a great life philosophy when he said, “Why, if I picked a day to fly… Oh, this would be it.”
REFLECTION
from Peter Pan
Wendy: But Peter Pan, how do we get to Neverland?
Peter Pan: Fly, of course!
Wendy: Fly?
Peter Pan: It's easy! You think of a wonderful thought!
The children: Any happy little thought?
Peter Pan: Uh, huh
Wendy: Like toys at Christmas?
John: Sleigh bells, snow?
Peter Pan: Yeah, watch me now, here I go!
It's easier than pie.
Wendy: He can fly!
John: He can fly!
Michael: He flew!!
Peter Pan: Now you try!
Wendy: I'll think of a mermaid lagoon.
Ahhh, underneath the magic moon!
John: I'll think I'm in a pirate's cave!
Michael: I think I'll be an Indian brave!
Peter Pan: Now, everybody try!
All: One, two, three!
Children: We can fly, we can fly, we can fly!
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