August 27, 2016. Eureka Springs, AR. Glory Days

This has been an unusual two days at the Passion Play. Our C and D parking areas between the Passion Play amphitheater and the Christ of the Ozark Statue have been taken over by the "Eureka Springs Foul Air Volkswagen Klub Overflow Show". Hundreds of VW bugs, busses, vans, beetles, rabbits, classic and late model in every condition imaginable have been on display in what are normally empty grass fields. There has been a steady parade of "entrants", gawkers, aficionados and people just out for a day of entertainment. The Eureka Springs Trolley extended its route through the display area and there has been music, food and fun for the attendees. Right now it's thundering and starting to rain so the general direction of travel appears to be outward.
In the "old days", the parking areas were full five nights a week with Passion Play attendees numbering between 2500-4000 per night. In those same old days, Karen and I owned a VW bug and a VW bus in which we travelled all over the country, and broke down in many of the places we travelled to. It was a fun life for us and a glorious time for the Passion Play. It harkens back to the time Bruce Springsteen wrote about in his song "Glory Days" and it seems that many of the shows participants are still longing for those olden days and spending a lot of time and money recreating those days and maybe lamenting the changes which have confronted us of late.
I look back with a wide range of emotions to the days gone by and occasionally wonder "what if" or "if only I had.....", but more often I have taken an attitude of the Glory Days yet to come and the realization that what we have now will not come with us, that the stuff we treasure so highly now is nothing more than stuff, and will become someone else's when we are gone.
It was fun to walk through the car display area earlier today, look at the cars and the people and hear some of the "memories", but it was more fun to take my place in The Holy Land and talk about Moses, Elijah, Jesus and the other Bible characters, visit with people about the Passion Play and build on the past to anticipate the Glory Days to come.
Later this evening we will present the Passion Play again. I wonder how many VW's will still be in the parking lot with their owners sitting in the amphitheater, All we can do is continue scattering seeds and hope some lands on good soil. God will water the seed, the Holy Spirit will make it grow and Jesus will be glorified.

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