I was blessed as a new Christian with supernatural experiences before naysayers could “prevent” them by sowing unbelief! One of my favorites occurred in the first year of my walk with Jesus and it had a profound impact on me, with just one of the fruits being the revelation that the Lord actually enjoys his creation.

Not just us, but also the universe he created for us.

I was visiting a popular amusement park, Six Flags Magic Mountain in Southern California, with a few of my friends, just after a new roller-coaster ride had been added to the many thrills in this amazing park. Its name was “Viper” and as we approached the long line of thrill-seekers waiting to try out this new ride, just the sight of the very tall track got our hearts beating faster!

My buddies “chickened out” with the excuse that the line was too long, but I decided to brave the scary contraption and got in the line by myself as they went off to find more tame adventure. After two hours in the slowly moving line, I finally found myself seated alone and buckled in tight in a “car” at about the middle of the roller coaster “train.”  

Just looking up at the initial steep portion of the track caused me to grip the safety bar across my lap so tightly that my knuckles turned white! Just before we began the initial ascent, I heard laughter from somewhere. I turned around to see if it came from the people in the seat behind me, but their knuckles were just as white as mine!

As we pulled out of the station and began our nerve-wracking ascent of the first hill, I heard more laughter. “Maybe it is coming from the speakers at the station,” I thought. Perhaps some sadistic operator is laughing at our fear? But half-way up the first hill I heard the laughter again, seemingly from right next to me in my car. Then I realized that it was Jesus laughing as he “sat” next to me in my car, unseen but very much heard by me!

As we went over the top of the first hill and began to accelerate through loops and corkscrews, Jesus “screamed” with delight right along with me (and everyone else on the ride), right up until we finished the incredibly thrilling ride and decelerated into the station to disembark. I let out a sigh of relief, and heard Jesus do the same!

As “we” began to leave the platform with the other surviving riders, Jesus said to me, “Let’s go again – this time in the front car.” So, we got in line again, this time for the front car, and eventually got buckled in after 2½ hours. This ride was very “different” because of the placement of the front car ahead of the “center-of-gravity” of the train. More screaming by Jesus and I accompanied this very cool thrill of a ride.

As we finished that second ride, Jesus said to me, “Let’s go again, this time in the back car of the train.” After another long wait in the line, we experienced more screaming together on this altogether different ride behind the center-of-gravity of the roller-coaster train. I realized that Jesus knew that I knew these three rides would be quite different because of the physics that governs the roller-coaster during the course of traversing the convoluted track. [My physics Ph.D. was proving useful!]

Occasionally, some of the eventual religious naysayers that heard my story of the roller-coaster rides with Jesus asked me, “Why would Jesus be screaming on a roller-coaster with you?” My answer was always the same:   

“Since Jesus invented gravity, I think he is entitled to enjoy it!”

I am quite sure that Abba enjoyed watching his sons having fun together at Magic Mountain.