“This,” explained Mr. Stewart our teacher, “is how you bisect an angle.”
We watched as his chalk drew a sharp angle on the chalkboard, and then he placed the foot of his big, rubber-tipped compass on the point of the angle and drew a little mark on each line. Then, with the compass foot on each little mark, he drew marks which crossed each other in the exact center of the angle. A line was drawn from this cross to the point of the angle and the job was done. The angle was perfectly bisected.
“Now,” Mr. Stewart added, “since you have learned this, your homework assignment is to trisect an angle with your compass. Divide it equally, not in two parts, but in three.”
This was a puzzle for us. We asked our older brothers and sisters, our parents and anyone else around, but no one had the answer. Sam was a math whiz. We all figured he would have the answer the next day.
But Sam was as puzzled as the rest of us. Nobody had the answer. And the teacher smiled a knowing smile at our failure. “Nobody has ever found a way,” he said. “It is impossible.”
And that remains a fact. Trisection with a compass is impossible. There are three equal parts to every angle, but no one can find them. Even though it is hard to understand, every math whiz must believe and accept this fact.
And our God has showed to us that there are three Persons in the Godhead. It is God the Father who planned the creation of the world. It is God the Son who carried out these plans. And the Holy Spirit is the power that carried out the plans. It is impossible to separate these three because together they are one God. Are you willing to believe this? Or are you foolish enough to refuse it because you cannot understand it? Leave this mystery to the God who made you.
I remember the day, not long after that homework assignment, when we all rose to our feet - a thousand of us teenage students - and stood for one full minute’s silence in respectful memory of Mr. Stewart. He had been suddenly called into eternity.
This call will come to each of us. When it is your turn, will you meet the God whom you have believed on, loved and honored? Or will you meet the God whom you have refused because you cannot understand Him?
Listen. you don’t have to understand Him. God has come down to this world in the Person of His Son, and His name is Jesus. He loves you. He is willing to be your Saviour. There are wonders that you will never understand, but you know how to say “yes” and how to say “no.” Answer Him now. He loves and receives sinners just like you and me. Will you say “yes”?
ML-01/05/2003