The Happy Bus

Last week I took the Happy Bus to Sylmar to pick up some toys for WFA's Toy Give-A-Way and I had some time to think while I was driving mainly because the Happy Bus doesn't have a radio and my phone was dead. I thought about chores at home I needed to do, Christmas presents I needed to buy for family and all the other things you think of when you're sitting in silence. Then I started praying...if you have ever seen the Happy Bus you'll know why this was very important at the time. I was afraid the van would over heat, blow up, blow a tire or even just look so ugly that it implodes on itself. As I was praying I noticed all the people looking at me as they passed some people we pointing and laughing, others were confused just looking at the van and others were angry at me because the van stops out at 60 mph when it starts shaking. At that point I stopped praying and started being embarrassed of the vehicle that I was driving and tried to avoid eye contact with other drivers.

I arrived at the warehouse, got out of the Happy Bus looked at it and was angry, I didn't know why. It could have been because of the hole in the ceiling that dropped sawdust into the hood of my sweatshirt or because it didn't have a radio that worked or because of the dumb balloons on the side, like I said I don't know why it made me angry but my guess is I was embarrassed. So I walked in and picked up 500 toys that we will be giving away this Saturday and loaded them up into the van and then my perspective change suddenly. Looking into this van filled with toys I realized this isn’t just an ugly van it’s a vehicle that our church uses to do God’s work. Then I thought about all the children that will be blessed by these toys. The kids don’t care what kind of car the toys were delivered in, they are just happy they are there. 

Sometimes we look at Christianity the same way we look at the Happy Bus, something embracing that we don’t want to be seen with. If we  and other people only knew the stories that could be told about it, Stories of taking students to camp where their lives were changed or stories of the food ministry and how many people are blessed every week to have food on their table because the Happy Bus transported the food to the church or the story of an entire nation being taken out of captivity because God wanted it to be (we aren't talking about the van anymore) or the greatest story of all, God sending his son to become fully man and fully God to die on the cross for you and me. If people only knew those stories I don’t think they would laugh at how it looks on the outside, I don’t think they would be angry the radio doesn’t work and I don’t think they would be upset that we can’t drive as fast as them. We, You and I need to stop being so concerned with what we look like on the outside and show our friends, co-workers, neighbors and whoever else we come in contact with, what it looks like on the inside because if they see what’s inside their perspective of the outside will probably change.