Route 66 - Pt 8

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. (1 Corinthians 1:20-25 ESV).

Angel & Vilma’s Route 66 Gift Shop in Seligman, Arizona. In 1987, two years after Route 66 had been decommissioned, Angel Delgadillo turned his barbershop and pool hall into the world's first Route 66-themed souvenir store. Others thought he was crazy, but Angel believed in the history of road. He became the first president of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona and convinced the state to declare the dead highway "Historic Route 66." That was the start of the revival of Route 66, and it has led to hundreds of Route 66 themed souvenir stores in a half-dozen states. But Angel's was the first. And it was the most difficult. Everyone has days they’d rather forget. Delgadillo’s has a time and date. At 2:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 22, 1978, the world disappeared. At least in Seligman. Two and a half hours earlier and 87 miles down the road, roughly 100 people gathered on a patch of smooth new pavement and killed Route 66. Dignitaries and civic leaders were in Kingman to cut the ribbon on Interstate 40, opening a $94 million stretch of freeway that immediately made Route 66 obsolete. At least that’s the way Delgadillo came to see it. “We were getting 9,000 cars a day,” he said. “You had to be so careful crossing the street. If your driveway backed up to the highway, it could take you 10 to 20 minutes to get out. “And then there was nothing. We were forgotten. Left to die.” But, there would be a happy ending to this unfolding drama. In November 1987, the state Transportation Board added Route 66 to Arizona’s list of historic roads. The designation not only breathed new life into the Mother Road, but into a vindicated Delgadillo as well. “All that time, almost 10 years, we’d been ignored,” he said. “But not anymore. Route 66 wasn’t dead after all.” The disciples of Jesus didn’t understand it; many of the religious Jews didn’t understand it; however, God knew precisely what He was doing in the death of His son, Jesus. This was not just the only way, it was THE way. Jesus’ died to bring us freedom and victory from death. Nearly 2,000 years has elapsed since that moment, there are still those who will not believe the declaration of God in the efficacious atonement He has made through Christ. Don’t be one of those people. Jesus died that we might have life!