I built a time machine this morning. 

I know there are those of you out there that may not believe that time travel is possible, but this morning, I proved all the naysayers wrong. 

I cobbled together a rather rickety contraption out of some imaginary scrap metal I had laying around up in my writing studio.  The thing is by no means pretty, but it’s scoring big with my kiddos. 

Not to make you jealous, but I’d like to brag a bit about this newly constructed apparatus. 

My time machine has an imaginary rocket engine (it’s super-duper quad-Hemi powered – whatever that means), a really cool deluxe-hyperspace digital chronometric control panel in the cockpit, and room enough to comfortably sit the equivalent of two adults and three kids.  And, believe it or not, I figured out a way to negotiate air-conditioning, a hot chocolate maker (as seen in the movie, The Santa Clause) and a digi-historical GPS navigation system into the mechanism.  Can you say, “impressive?” 

Hudson and Harper sat wide-eyed on the living room floor as I rolled the make-believe rickety contraption in front of them this morning.  I opened up the imaginary door (which already needs a little oil) and we all piled in.  After all of us were buckled into our imaginary seat belts, I typed in our very first destination into the control panel. 

Destination: The moment of Creation

We definitely didn’t start with a smallish first adventure.  We arrived at the very beginning of the six-day creation and were able to all witness it together as a family.  It was truly extraordinary.  There we were standing in the pitch black surrounded on every side with a vast ocean of darkness when suddenly the voice of God boomed, “Let there be light!” and, to our shock and amazement, there was a mighty explosion of light that shook the universe.  My children will always be able to say that they personally witnessed the creation of the sun, moon, and stars.

Hudson and Harper watched wide-eyed as the dry land formed and trees, shrubs, and flowers sprung up from the ground.  There was actually a big apple tree that grew right up in front of us bearing basketball-sized apples.  Animals appeared out of thin air and began growling, barking, and meowing.  Oh, and Hudson may never forget watching Adam come to life – it was quite the drama! 

Hudson was so excited this morning with this imaginary contraption and all the possibilities it held.  All throughout breakfast he was begging to go on another adventure.  So after breakfast, we all got buckled in again, and Daddy typed in a new destination:

Destination: Bethlehem, Israel, oh, approximately 2,000 year ago. 

It was amazing.  It was a night when real-life angels could be seen in the night skies singing and proclaiming the extraordinary news that God Himself had been born as a baby.  And we witnessed it all as a family.  We even visited the smelly stable where the little baby Jesus was staying.  It did smell really bad in there, but none of us cared in the least, because we were witnessing the very life of God in human skin.  I tried to get Hudson to hold the little baby but he was a bit intimidated by the notion.  He did give baby Jesus a kiss on the cheek, though, and Harper gave Him a real nice snuggle.  And after saying goodbye to Mary and Joseph, we once again took off in our time machine. 

Hudson really wanted to go to Brasilia, Brazil.  So I typed in our next destination:

Destination: Brasilia, Brazil, one day ago.

Hudson and I (Harper was a little travel weary by this time and Momma was busy in the kitchen) walked the busy streets of Brasilia and met scores of street children.  Hudson packed a lot of food for our trip and so we were able to personally deliver a good hot meal to quite a large number of precious orphan kids who have no family and no place to live.  In fact, Hudson was so excited about the notion of helping these little children that he asked me to find a lot more street kids for us to help.  So, we sort of put on an event.  We invited hundreds of thousands of street kids to come join us and get a free meal.  Our only problem was we didn’t have near enough food for so many kids.  So we prayed over the food we did have and asked God to multiply it.  Sure enough, he did just that.

The event in Brazil was a great success.  In fact, Hudson was so taken with these kids that we attached a bus and a train to the back of the time machine in order to bring a hundred of them back with us to Windsor, Colorado. 

Daddy wasn’t quite sure that his rickety contraption would be able to hold together while carrying so much weight and passing through time at 380 jiggowatts, but somehow we made it back, and in one piece.  Boy, am I glad that I put that super-duper quad-Hemi powered rocket engine in it instead of the Toro mower engine that the Home Depot blueprint recommended.

I’ve already taught Hudson how to drive the time machine and he’s visited Brazil about four times today on his own.  I’ve told him to make sure he takes good care of this machine, because we have many more exciting adventures just up ahead. 

I was thinking maybe we should visit a guy named Noah, pal around with Moses for a day, maybe join David in throwing around some smooth stones in the Valley of Elah, oh, and maybe just attend a crusade hosted by the Apostle Paul. 

You should consider building yourself a time machine.  It’s a lot of fun.