Adventures in 3D
Some time ago, National Geographic produced an issue of their magazine which caught my attention.
There were two articles, one on the Planet Mars and one on the Titanic, which were designed so that you needed 3D glasses to view the pictures. Without the glasses the pictures looked out of focus and all a blur. With the glasses the images appeared not just 2 dimensional but 3 dimensional. What I saw in the pictures depended on how I was viewing them.
This is very much like life. What we see depends on how we view things. I thought about my own life, and the “3D” glasses I found. I now have a way of looking at life that takes away the blurriness and brings everything into focus. I now see the full 3 dimensional picture.
I grew up in England, 30 miles south of London. I grew up in a very stable, loving home. My mother was from Canada and met my father–who worked as a management consultant–when he was in Toronto on a business trip.
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Everything looked great
I was so privileged to have the parents that I did. My dad adored me and I adored him. He always had time for me. Like the other fathers in the neighbourhood, Dad commuted up to London for work. His life was governed by the arrival and departure of the local trains. My mother looked after my older sister and I, and returned to work when we were in school.
Home was a beautiful house set in gardens and an orchard. Our weekends were spent working or playing in the garden and attending church every Sunday.
My parents took their church going very seriously and were involved in many things. My sister and I were encouraged to join in all the church activities and soon church became our second home. I sang in the choir for ten years. I attended three services on a Sunday, singing at two and helping out in the Nursery or the Sunday School at the third.
This pattern followed on for years and I was happy with the familiarity of it. It was unthreatening, unchallenging, familiar, safe and secure. Just like a good cup of English tea, my Christianity was part of my heritage and remained that and no more.
Finding Jesus at Christmas time
When I was fifteen I went to hear my sister sing in a Christmas musical. At the end, a lady spoke about what being a Christian was really all about and said things that I had never heard before. She talked about making Jesus personal and the necessity of having to decide whether to follow Jesus or not. She talked about accepting Jesus as my personal Saviour.
This was all very foreign to me. I treated Christianity as another academic subject, albeit one that I learned on Sunday. Wasn’t I the one who got chosen to represent the church youth group in Bible quizzes because I always knew the answer? This lady was telling me that what was going on in my heart and my mind sealed my eternal destiny–it wasn’t about how many services I attended at church on Sunday or how well behaved I was. She challenged us all to ask the people around us if they had that kind of relationship with Jesus and I realised that I could not answer “yes.” I was scared and I wanted to run out of the hall.
There was more to Christianity than I had thought and yet I knew that I must pursue what I had heard. I realised that the brand of Christianity I knew was impersonal and empty. I wanted to know Jesus personally.
I completed school and four years of training as an osteopath. My parents continued to love and support me and my father continued to make time for me. When I was a student living in central London, I would cycle to meet him at his office and we would go and have lunch together. He was always eager to hear what I was doing. He encouraged me to follow my dreams and see the world. Wherever I travelled there was always a letter waiting for me when I arrived, from my Dad.
Losing my Dad
Eventually, I moved to Canada. My parents visited and liked it so well that they moved to Canada following their retirement. In time, my father had a heart attack and I tried to prepare myself for the inevitable. On one occasion, he came to stay with me and my husband in Vancouver for a week. We had such a special time together.
Only a few days later I received the call–my father had experienced another attack and everything that could have been done had been done. He had passed away. I can remember every moment of that evening.
Yet above all other emotions was one of deep joy and peace, and I immediately knew where that was coming from. I knew without a doubt that my Heavenly Father had His arms wrapped around me that evening as my earthly father always had. Suddenly I saw the events of the evening and the preceding couple of weeks as being scripted just for me. As the most special gift my Heavenly Father could have given me, He gave me one last special week to spend with my dad. He allowed us to laugh and play together. He allowed me the privilege of comforting my mother.
Only my Heavenly Father can turn hearts around like that and fill them with overwhelming joy and the peace that passes all understanding. In Psalm 23, which I memorized as a child at school, God said “The Lord is my shepherd. I shall lack nothing. Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me.” Those words became real to me.
The Bible tells us that when we enter into a relationship with God He becomes our father. The mystery is that the God of the universe wants to have an intimate relationship with you and me. I knew without a doubt the day my earthly father died that my Heavenly Father loved me. God wants to write a story for not just so many of us, but for each and every one of us.
I used to live my life in two dimensions–it was blurry and incomplete. I didn’t realize it could be any different, but following Christ has added the “third dimension” to my life.
Are you living a blurry, “two-dimensional” life?
Take a look at your life. How would you describe it? Contented? Rushed? Exciting? Stressful? Moving forward? Holding back? For many of us it’s all of the above at times. There are things we dream of doing one day, there are things we wish we could forget. In the Bible, it says that Jesus came to make all things new. What would your life look like if you could start over with a clean slate?
Living with hope
If you are looking for peace, there is a way to balance your life. No one can be perfect, or have a perfect life. But every one of us has the opportunity to experience perfect grace through a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus Christ.
You can receive Christ right now by faith through prayer. Praying is simply talking to God. God knows your heart and is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. Here’s a suggested prayer:
Lord Jesus, I want to know you personally. Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. I open the door of my life to you and ask you to come in as my Savior and Lord. Take control of my life. Thank you for forgiving my sins and giving me eternal life. Make me the kind of person you want me to be.
Does this prayer express the desire of your heart? You can pray it right now, and Jesus Christ will come into your life, just as He promised.
Is this the life for you?
If you invited Christ into your life, thank God often that He is in your life, that He will never leave you and that you have eternal life. As you learn more about your relationship with God, and how much He loves you, you’ll experience life to the fullest.
