One summer, we took a trip overland to the eastern states of Australia to visit relatives. I was not a Christian at that time, in spite of being educated in a ‘church’ school. I’d not stayed connected to that denomination once those years were over. My husband was a believer, and though I wasn’t actively ‘searching’ for God, I was conscious of an emptiness inside even though I had everything I could possibly want or need. A good education, a respected profession, a loving husband, beautiful children, engaged in building a unique pole-house among the treetops on our block of land in the hills. I was thankful for all of those things but when I looked around, I recall thinking on more than one occasion… is this all there is? We live, reproduce ourselves, work hard, then die and return to the earth? Was there nothing more to life? What was the purpose of it all? I didn’t know how to go about filling that void and while going ‘east’ was an exciting and positive experience, I did not expect much to change because of it. Little did I know! One morning, I came across a book resting on the mantle-piece above the fireplace in my in-laws home. I asked my mother-in-law if I could read it and she happily handed it over. Apparently, it had been up there for weeks prior to our arrival, a neighbour/friend had left it there for her to read, but she hadn’t got around to doing that. The book was ‘The Late Great Planet Earth’ by Hal Lindsay.
In between spending enjoyable times with my husband/children and extended family members, I read the book with a growing excitement. I knew I was stumbling on a truth I’d been seeking for a long time, finally understanding my life was not an accident, that God knew me by name, and that He had a plan for the whole earth, the events occurring across the world, not ‘random.’ In all my years of Scripture classes and church services, it had never been clear to be that I could have a personal relationship with God through the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. The emphasis had always been about ‘good works’ and keeping the church laws and regulations…
So, was the book on the shelf a mere coincidence? Remember, no one else had discovered it or shown any interest in reading it apart from me and I’d travelled thousands of miles(even more kilometres) to be able to hold it in my hot little hand! Was the whole incident of no importance or was it a direct ‘intervention’ from God into my life? Well, let’s look at the result of that experience. On our return home, I immediately bought several more books by the same author and was still assimilating all the new information when another interesting, and timely, incident occurred. Oh, yes, there’s more to the story…read the next post!