David ~ the wilderness: when David was really king.

Space Mountain. It is a ride at Disneyland.          I can nearly hear the question marks popping out of your mind as you read. "Wait-wait! I thought the title was 'David ~ the wilderness..." ? Yup, it is. "So? David...Space Mountain? ? ? ?"
Have you been on the ride? It is roller-coaster. It spins and turns and climbs and falls. It feels like flying, like being thrown out of control.

But it is -- elaborate as this mini-model shows it is -- just a roller-coaster. The thing that makes it kind of genius is that it is a ride in the dark, lit only by tiny little lights...sort of like the little ones we sometimes put on Christmas trees. We are spun and twisted, thrown up and down, raced round and round all in the dark. The dark makes all the difference. There is no way to anticipate, no way to prepare a reaction. I scream, as I ride. But it is a really a piercing note of laughter. I love it.

Space Mountain: It is crazy, and wild, and fun! Fun because we are soaked in our own adrenaline when the ride stops. And fun because the darkness and the ride stop. It is fun because it is in the dark, fun because it is a ride, and fun because it stops.


For me, Space Mountain is so metaphor for what David went through from his days as a shepherd for his dad on the hills of Bethlehem...life spun, there were races to a high pinnacles, plunges to a low depth. And ~ it was a ride in the dark. But I do not think David spent his time laughing. You see, there is such a big difference when you are safely strapped in to what you know is a short ride, and when it is your life.
David watches sheep and writes songs on a harp,
     is raced home to dinner where he meets the prophet Samuel and he is anointed as King of Israel,
      
 starts a day by taking lunch to his brothers and ends a day by killing a giant,
                                                                    

                                                        becomes a ranking officer in the army,

              is honored by the people and by the officers in the army,
                                   

marries the king's daughter,

          is honored and haunted by a "top-40" song written in his honor,

                                     is hated by a jealous king, and loved by that king's son,


                     
                                                               runs away,
 runs to the priest at Nob,
                     runs to hide in Gath ~ in Philistia, the land of Israel's enemy. That is where I will start next: David's trip in and out of Gath.

I think David may have spent some time screaming during this crazy ride...I do not think it was a piercing scream of laughter. I do not think David would have called it fun. He likely felt that his life was out of control...but God was in control, and he was safe...the whole time...safe!

Go read:
1 Samuel chapters 16:1 to 22:2. Read it in a gulp. Think, ponder. Try to make it real. Try to feel what it was like. Go ahead, cast parts if you want to. It is a crazy story. I think you'll like it.




                                                          


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