My sister invited me and my family to join her and her family for a day at Carowinds over the Labor Day weekend. For those of you not familiar with the term, Carowinds, it is a theme/amusement park that straddles the NC/SC state-line just south of Charlotte off Interstate 77. In fact, one rollercoaster called, Thunder-Road, allows passengers to crisscross the state-line during the ride.
I am very grateful for my sister’s hospitality as she paid our way into the park as a birthday gift to me, and I certainly would not want her to misinterpret what I write as being anything closely resembling ungratefulness. In fact, let me say up-front that I had a great time especially watching my three-year-old, Matthew, have the time of his life. Matthew is my little fearless fire-ball, and he was ready to ride anything that the park would allow him to ride. Unfortunately, being only three years of age, he couldn’t ride just anything which was a great disappointment to him. Honestly, he would’ve gotten on the fastest, scariest rides in the park had he been allowed to do so.
Now, with all that said, let me share with you the spiritual lesson that I learned from my five-year-old, Jonathan. As I’ve mentioned on this blogsite before, Jonathan had been diagnosed as being mildly autistic a few years ago. As a result, he has experienced some developmental delays, and his personality and characteristics are a little different than most children his age.
In the days leading up to our trip, Jonathan (5), Matthew (3), and to some degree my baby boy Stephen (1) were all excited about going to Carowinds (or as they called it: "the carnival"). Their enthusiasm even led to a measure of disciplinary problems as their excitement overshadowed their ability to behave. All Jonathan could talk about was riding the Merry-Go-Round. In fact, he told everybody who would listen that when he got to the “carnival” he was going to ride the Merry-Go-Round. For days, all that could be heard in my household was: “Merry-Go-Round, Merry-Go-Round, Merry-Go-Round” on and on and on and on......
Unfortunately, children who battle even mild forms of autism can become over-stimulated. When we arrived at Carowinds, the only parking spaces left were the ones located at the back entrance. When you enter the park from that side, you have to walk under a rather large, fast, and intimidating rollercoaster called Top-Gun. That experience along with extremely loud music being played through the loud-speakers on that end of the park was more than Jonathan could handle. As a result, he “freaked out.” By the time we made our way to the Merry-Go-Round (which was all that Jonathan had talked about in the days leading up to our trip), he was terrified of even the pleasant ride of a Merry-Go-Round, and I had to take him off the ride before the other passengers could proceed.
I really felt bad for Jonathan because he was genuinely excited about the prospect of riding a Merry-Go-Round only to have genuine excitement turn to genuine terror. So, what’s the moral of this story? Perhaps it’s the reality that the amusements of this world never really deliver what they promise.
May I never forget the lesson from my five-year-old... real contentment will not be found in the things of this world but will be found only in the presence of God.
BB
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