My family and I recently spent six full days in the Wonderful World of Disney in the heart of Orlando, Florida.  It was an incredible week.  We have three small children (six and under) and they had an absolute blast.  They do not call it the Magic Kingdom for nothing!  We rode rides (my six year old's favorite ride was Space Mountain), ate Funnel Cakes, and got the autograph of ever Disney character we could find.  Emma got to have one on one conversations with Cinderella, Bell, and Princess Aurora from Sleeping Beauty.  She was in a four year old little girl's utopia.  And to Disney's credit, they try their best to create an utopia for everyone who walks through their gates.  And for the most part, they succeed.  The streets are clean, the service is impeccable, and they have created the Fast Pass system which allows you to skip long lines.  There is the temptation to walk into a place like this and think, "How could their possibly be sin in a place like this?"  But this is not reality.  Sin has penetrated and distored every aspect of reality, even Disney World.  You could not walk 50 yards in any direction and not see siblings fighting, parents arguing, and grandparents (those who did not know about Fast Pass) complaing about the wait in line.  Unfortunately Disney World cannot eliminate sin the way Fast Pass can eliminate long lines.

We see in Disney World an attempt at what everyone longs for: perfection, beauty, joy, and even rest.  But this is not reality, at least not in the world that we experience now.  What Jesus promises in the coming of the New Heavens and the New Earth is exactly what our hearts long for.  Sin and unmet longings will never again be the experience of reality.  In the presence of our King relationships are healed, sickness and death are defeated, and all of creation is restored.  Disney World is a great place, but it infinitely fails in its comparison to the beauty and glory of one day seeing Jesus face to face.