Disneyland Angel

In the early nineteen nineties, I was pastoring a missions church on an Island in Southeast Alaska.  Each year we would try to travel back to San Diego where our families lived so our children could know their grandparents. It was on one of these trips that the Lord once again showed not only His omnipotence, but His loving care for even“the desires of our hearts”.  

Betsy and I had both grown up in Southern California. Part of the Southern California experience, especially for young people, was always Disneyland. We both had great memories of trips there with family and friends. Most of the ministry we had been involved in since the birth of our three children had been to very isolated places like the Kenai Peninsula and the Islands of Southeast Alaska, so our children were not growing up with those same entertainments we had experienced.  Because of this, we were hoping to be able to swing a trip to Disneyland on our visit that year to San Diego.   

I began praying for that opportunity long before we arrived in San Diego.  However, our ministry as a missions pastor of a secluded village on Chichagof Island did not provide much income. (actually, it did not provide any income) When I checked my wallet, I realized I had only $80 left to take care of any necessities in San Diego.  We had no credit cards at that time. Nevertheless, I prayed for a way to make this Disneyland trip work.  

As I prayed, I felt encouraged, as if the Lord was telling me it was going to work.  I delayed making plans for our first few days in San Diego, figuring the Lord would provide the financial means. I knew adult passes were around $28, and children’s passes were about $23 apiece. That meant it would take $125 for our family to get in, and that did not include gas or food.  After waiting a couple days expecting the Lord to provide some extra money, I sensed the Lord telling me to just go.

Cutting into that $80 in my wallet, we filled the tank and drove north to Anaheim and Disneyland. I knew we did not have enough money to even get in the gate, but I also knew that the Lord was telling us to go. He had provided for us so many times and in so many ways in the past. Even though we arrived early in the morning, the crowds were still substantial. We ended up parking directly out from the front gate about as far away from it as was possible.  I still did not know how this was going to work, but Betsy and I and the kids got out of the car and began walking with the crowds towards the ticket booths that sat in an arc just out from the entry gates. 

We had walked well over half the distance to the gate when I saw a man up near the ticket booths looking out across the approaching crowd. He was very tall, with frizzy red hair.  I think he was a full head taller than anyone around him. I noticed that he was looking back and forth across the crowd as if searching for someone. He was so tall and unusual that it seemed odd that no one else was even paying any attention to him.  We continued to walk but I kept my eyes upon this man as he appeared so unusual, even for L.A. County.  As he scanned the crowd, his eyes came to rest upon me. When they did, he seemed to abandon his search and just stare intently at me and my family. Only seconds after seeing us, he raised his arm in a very dramatic manner, pointing at us, then using his finger he beckoned us to come towards him.  It seemed I could do nothing less that comply.                                      

When we were within a dozen feet of him, he broke into an ear-to-ear smiles.  He looked so friendly and inviting it seemed impossible to not follow him.  Still smiling, he turned and led us to the left side of the ticket booths and around to the tall metal fence that surrounded the park.  Inside that fence was a tall thick hedge.  He eventually stopped at a spot along the fence and for the first time we noticed a gate.  It was not a tall gate like the fence, but a low gate, maybe forty-two inches tall. Behind that gate was a break in the hedge that led into the inside area of the park. He reached down (way down I remember) and opened the unguarded gate and stood to the side still smiling.  He found ourselves cheerfully ushered through the gate and into the park.                     

Working our way through the crowd, we eventually found an open place where we could talk and say thank you to our tall red headed guide. As we turned to look for him, there was no seven-foot-tall man with frizzy red hair anywhere in sight.  I guided my now stunned family back the way we came to see if he was still at the little gate he had led us through.  He was not there, and neither was the gate.  There was only a stroller rental booth along that area of the fence. I realized later that there could be no such unguarded gate into the park or crowds would be there pushing their way in. It was Magic Kingdom era at Disneyland and once in the park there was no need for a ticket. We spent the day taking the kids on all the rides we had remembered as children.  We even had enough money to buy a few meals.

The writer of the book of Hebrews reminds us that some believers will “entertain angels”.  I know today that this tall redhead was a messenger of God taking care of my family and I, even providing those things that are “the desires of our hearts”. I also know that God is great at creating “gates” where men think there are none.