Contact

Posted On April 18, 2021

“‘My thoughts,’ says the Lord,’ are not like yours,
and my ways are different from yours.
As high as the heavens are above the earth,
so high are my ways and thoughts above yours.
My word is like the snow and the rain
that come down from the sky to water the earth.
They make the crops grow
and provide seed for planting and food to eat.
So also will be the word that I speak —
it will not fail to do what I plan for it;
it will do everything I send it to do.'”

Isaiah 55:8-11 GNT

One of my favorite sci-fi movies is Contact based on Carl Sagan’s book by the same name. To give you an idea of the story, here is a trailer:

“Buried within the message itself is the key to decoding it.”

Contact

In this movie, Dr. Ellie Arroway is a scientist who has dedicated her career to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). She discovers a signal, originating from the nearby star system Vega, consisting of a repeating sequence of prime numbers. While studying the signal, scientists discover more layers to the message: It also contains an old video broadcast from earth, but interlaced with the frames of the video images is another signal, one which contains thousands of pages of encrypted data. The data is some sort of alien message. In order to decode it, the scientists need to find a primer, a key which can be used to decipher the data. With the help of a reclusive billionaire who has a personal interest in Dr. Arroway’s research, Ellie learns that the primer is contained within the data itself. The secret is to learn to “think like a Vegan” (that is, like an alien from Vega) and view the pages as three-dimensional instead of two-dimensional. Once Ellie and the other scientists do this, they are able to decode the information. They discover that the data contains schematics for building some sort of machine which may lead them to contact with the aliens themselves.

There are many themes in this movie that would be fun to explore, but I want to focus on the signal itself — specifically, on the idea of discovering layers of meaning in the message and viewing it from a different point of view. Finding more substance than what’s initially apparent reminds me of studying the Bible. On the surface, the Bible contains many interesting stories and fundamental truths, but as we dig deeper, we discover so much more. Like the alien data interlaced with the frames of the video images, there is a bigger picture than the one we see at first.

“There are two stories being written at the same time throughout the pages of the Bible — the Upper Story and the Lower Story. The Lower Story is how the story unfolds from the perspective of humanity. The Upper Story is how the story is unfolding from God’s perspective. The Bible is filled with hundreds and hundreds of Lower Stories, but it contains just one Upper Story. When you rise above and gaze at all these individual stories, you will see how God used each and every one of them to tell his grand love story of redemption.”

Randy Frazee, The Heart of the Story

“The ocean is so deep in places that no person, however capable a swimmer, could survive its extremities. But at the same time, when the ocean touches the land, the water is so shallow and the waves lapping the beach are so gentle that even a toddler can safely play there. Anyone who has visited the beach has seen firsthand that the ocean is both intimidating and approchable. The same is true of the Bible.”

Deron Spoo, The Good Book

As we read the stories of other human beings and their encounters with God, we begin to learn more about who God is and how He works in others’ lives. When we look beyond the surface and examine the big picture from the Author’s point of view, we see the story of our loving Father saving His children. As we dive deeper, we discover truths that we can apply in our own lives, and God’s Word begins to change us. Soon we realize that we are not just reading about our Creator, we are actually communicating with Him. In some mysterious way, He uses these ancient stories to speak to us today. God makes personal contact with each one of us through His written Word.

“Though we’re incapable of solving the deep mysteries of God, we’re fully capable of learning and appreciating more about them . . . . God’s thoughts are indeed higher than ours. He reduces His thoughts into words and reveals them in Scripture because He wants us to know Him.”

Randy Alcorn, Seeing the Unseen

“What God did then he is still doing now. His story isn’t finished yet. . . . God is writing a story, and you are a character within it. He wants you to see your story from his perspective. . . . The same God who was at work in the pages of the Bible is at work in your life.”

Randy Frazee, The Heart of the Story

The more we read and study God’s Word, the more we get to know Him. We learn that He had a plan from the beginning to save each one of us through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. We also discover that Christ sent the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. The Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of Scripture, and He interprets it for us as we read. Like Dr. Arroway’s wealthy benefactor, the Holy Spirit helps us find the key to decode the information in the Bible and apply it in our own lives. This is how the Bible comes alive. We can read the same passage of Scripture hundreds of times and learn something new each time. As we live in the Word, the Word begins to live in us, and we are transformed. Then we are able to “test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2 NIV).

“The Author of life has placed us in a story far bigger than ourselves. We can trust God not only to bring the whole story together but also to do with our parts of it what He knows to be best. . . . Before we fault Him for the plot twists we don’t like, we should remember that Jesus has written this story in His own blood.”

Randy Alcorn, Seeing the Unseen

I want to conclude with another scene from the movie Contact. In this clip, the schematics discovered in the alien signal have been used to build the mysterious machine, and it has transported Ellie through space. She arrives in a place recreated from one of her memories, where she makes contact with one of the aliens. He appears to her in the form of her deceased father . . .

“You’re an interesting species, an interesting mix. You’re capable of such beautiful dreams and such horrible nightmares. You feel so lost, so cut off, and so alone. Only you’re not.”

Contact

Ellie receives a message from beyond earth. She studies it, digs deeper, and discovers instructions which lead her on a journey that transforms her. She makes contact with her father and he tells her she’s not alone. He shows her that there’s a much bigger picture, and a bigger plan, than she ever realized. He gives her hope for the future . . . Our heavenly Father does the same for us.

“God has not left us on our own, mapless or helpless, to try to figure out how to get to His destinations. He has given us our personal Tutor, the Holy Spirit, to guide us into all truth. He has also given us His road map of life, the Word of God. This manual spells out in plain print much of our most desperately needed direction. . . . As we read it and chew on it, His Word will begin to dwell richly in our heart and mind, and we will reach the destination He has planned for our lives.”

James W. Goll, The Beginner’s Guide to Hearing God

This week’s Scripture passages encourage us to stay in contact with our Father, the Author of our story. There is a printer-friendly pdf version below the image. God doesn’t want us to feel alone or lost. That’s why He sent His Word to guide us on our journey.

“For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Romans 15:4 ESV

References:

• Alcorn, Randy. Seeing the Unseen, Expanded Edition: A 90-Day Devotional to Set Your Mind on Eternity. Multnomah, 2017.
• Contact. Dir. Robert Zemeckis. Warner Bros., 1997.
• “Contact.” YouTube, uploaded by Dan Leopard, 17 February 2008, https://youtu.be/sRPUO6gGSh8.
• “Contact (1997) Trailer #1 | Movieclips Classic Trailers.” YouTube, uploaded by Movieclips Classic Trailers, 1 May 2020, https://youtu.be/Q399v-pMG30.
• Frazee, Randy. The Heart of the Story: Discover Your Life Within the Grand Epic of God’s Story. Zondervan, 2017.
• Goll, James W. The Beginner’s Guide to Hearing God. Regal from Gospel Light, 2008.
• Spoo, Deron. The Good Book: 40 Chapters That Reveal the Bible’s Biggest Ideas. David C Cook, 2017.

Images:

• Radio Telescopes featured image by enriquelopezgarre from Pixabay
• Space image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
• Beach image by Alem Coksa from Pixabay
• Bible image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay
• Woman Reading image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay