Dream Vacations

Per Request of the spunky Erica:  "What is your dream vacation?"

I am not a dreamer.  I live in reality because sometimes it just plain hurts to dream.  You never know if your dreams are going to match up with God's will, so sometimes it is easier for me just to be along for the ride, so to speak.  That way I am shielded from disappointment.

I am sure a lot of you are gasping, saying, "where is the joy in your life?"...but really, this approach seems to make me quite content rather than disappointed.  I have know idea what the Bible would say about this...it just seems to be how I roll.

So, for me to speak of my dream vacation is kinda testy.  It makes me jump out of my comfort zone and acknowledge the fact that the inner parts of my heart really do long for certain things.

So, I will throw out a couple of dream vacations for ya, o' shiny one (because Erica seems to know the secret of getting struck by lightning and living to tell about it.)  I bet she is a dreamer.

1.  The Holy Land.  Israel.  Jerusalem.  I know it sounds cliche', but I want to walk where Jesus walked.  I want to find the old city "Bethel" (I have no idea what it is called today) and just sit and marvel at all the things that took place in this city.  Bethel means "house of God".  It is where Abraham first called upon the name of the Lord.  It is where Jacob had his infamous dream about the ladder that reached into heaven.  It is where people often went to seek God's counsel.  It seems that people have amazing experiences of meeting with God in this place...hence, the "house of God."  How awesome would it be to sit at the place where all these profound events took place? 

I have a love for the Jewish people that I know only comes from God.  I often wake up in the middle of the night praying for the "peace of Jerusalem" and that God would open their eyes to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah they are longing for.  I pray that Jesus would be the peace of Jerusalem.  I am promised that one day it will happen...that they will recognize Him as their Savior...I am just ready for that day.

So, that is one of my dream vacations...to go to a place that just might help me understand the Word better...especially if I can get a visual on how things are laid out and also a feel for Jewish culture.  After all, Jesus was Jewish.

2.  My second dream vacation would be to take a photographic journey of the States.  I would love to capture Mt. Rushmore, the Golden Gate Bridge, Niagara Falls, whales in the Pacific, and on and on.  The most feasible way to do this would be to buy a motor home/coach/whatever, load up the family and travel for about a month.  I have no idea what all we could get accomplished in a month, but what a fun and awesome memory for all of us!  When I was about to be a 5th grader, Dad bought a motor home/coach/whatever and we loaded up and headed to California.  We saw the Grand Canyon, the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest, Disneyland, Knots Berry Farm, San Diego Zoo, and a hundred KOA campgrounds!  It is something I will never forget...all of us being together like that...just enjoying life and what God had created.  It would be a joy to get to do something like that with our kids someday.

So, there you have it.  I jumped out on a limb and dreamed a little.  Maybe, just maybe, those dreams will align with what God has in store...