A View from a New Angle
Willard Richards was a B-17 waist-gunner on many missions over Europe. He had been in love with airplanes since he was a boy and had a clear recollection from age eleven of his first flight:
Taxiing for takeoff was really bumpy, but as we lifted off the ground it became unbelievably smooth. There I was, getting a view of my whole world from a new angle. The big shale pile by the abandoned coal mine, the outline of an old racetrack, the ponds where we skated and fished all came into view. There was the local cemetery and the steel mill where Father worked. The sandstone quarry and the new hospital on the edge of town all looked like blocks on a Monopoly board. My grandfather’s farm looked like a postage stamp and our house on the edge of the farm was so small. We descended over the high-tension wires and came in for a really rough landing. The whole flight took about ten minutes, but it changed my outlook on life.264
It is amazing to consider an experience that gives you an entirely new perspective. The birth of our first child was this kind of event, suddenly creating whole new priorities for my wife and myself. There is no change more dramatic, however, than our spiritual awakening. Jesus Christ came into my heart at the end of a long process. But in that one moment of acceptance, my life changed suddenly and completely. I saw other people with new eyes that held no judgment. The Bible came to life as a meaningful source of truth. My church changed from a building into the living body of Christ. It was truly life-changing to experience the perfection of God’s love as revealed by his Son. There is no greater change in perspective than the one that comes with a new heart.
This we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.
—1 John 1:12