by Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001)
A CHEMICAL ENGINEER SAVED ON AN AIRPLANE
A few years ago I was flying to Denver, Colorado. A very fine-looking, middle-aged businessman was sitting next to me. Soon I initiated a conversation. After a brief chat I inquired as to his business. He said, "I am a chemical engineer," and then he asked me if I knew anything about chemistry. I replied that I knew a little. (I know that H20 is water and that I had dropped chemistry in college for the safety of the building and the tranquility of the faculty. Since that is a little, I told him that I knew a little about chemistry!)
He then asked what I thought about a new formula. I told him that I felt that since the formula was new, we should not make a hasty decision concerning it. He was very impressed with that statement and told me that he felt the same way. He said it was refreshing to find a layman who knew something about chemistry.
He then called off another formula even more complicated than the first and asked my opinion about that one. I replied that there were probably some good things about that formula but there might be some bad things also and that probably we should be for the good and against the bad. Still not realizing my ignorance, he complimented me again because of the good grasp I seemed to have on chemistry.
Now that I had succeeded in making my ignorance sound like knowledge, he then asked me concerning my business. Suddenly I found myself telling him that I was an ambassador. This really startled him. He sat up in his seat and said, "Sir, I did not realize that I was in such important company. Do you mean that your citizenship is in a foreign country?"
Chuckling under my breath, I answered affirmatively. (Philippians 3:20-"For our conversation (citizenship)is in Heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. ")
Then he asked, "Do you really represent a king in America?"
Nothing could be closer to the truth than that, so I said, "Yes, I do."
Once again he sat up in his seat, startled and impressed. "With your accent," he said, "I am surprised."
Then I assured him that I had been in this country representing the King for many years and had picked up many of the characteristics of this country (far too many, I was afraid).
Then he asked the question: "Who is the king and what is the country?"
I said happily, "The country is Heaven and the King is Jesus," and in a few minutes he, too, was an ambassador from my Country with faith in my King.
A report came to me several weeks after this experience that this chemical engineer had joined a Baptist church in the state of Michigan.
