Any Star Wars fan can tell you how powerful a tractor beam can be, but I know of a drawing power that can pull you toward a far better destination.
In the first film of the Star Wars franchise, the Millennium Falcon gets caught in the tractor beam of the Death Star. Han Solo can only yield to it and let it pull his space freighter in. The plot device paid homage to what’s been a common element in a lot of science fiction since it first appeared in a 1931 sci-fi novel (where it was called an “attractor beam”). In addition to Star Wars, the plot device has appeared in Star Trek episodes, Iron Man, District 9, Spaceballs, The Incredibles, Avengers: Infinity Wars, and Pixar’s Lifted, to name a few.
Did you know that scientists have developed a real-life tractor beam? University scientists have collaborated with a company called Ultrahaptics to create a sonic tractor beam using 64 miniature speakers to generate high-intensity sound waves. The waves form an “acoustic hologram” which surrounds an object and allows the object to be lifted and manipulated in mid-air. Until now, the project has worked on an object the size of a marble from a few feet away, but they are working on something that aims to levitate a soccer ball from over 30 feet away. Not exactly the Millennium Falcon, but it’s a start.
Jesus said his atoning death would activate a drawing power, and it’s more compelling than any tractor beam. In John 12:32, he declared, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” He predicted that people from every nation and every walk of life would feel the pulling power of his sacrificial love.
Conversion happens when we finally concede to the pulling power of Jesus that we have been feeling and resisting for far too long. Then we will nod in agreement when we hear that song—
Oh, that old rugged cross
So despised by the world
Has a wondrous attraction for me
Let’s study this truth in more detail this Sunday. Join us on campus or online at 10am!
--Tom
Photo Credit: Sascha Steinbach/Getty
Tom serves as pastor at Hillcrest Church in Austin, Texas. His sermons are available on YouTube and the HillcrestToGo Podcast and you can find him on Facebook and Twitter. If someone forwarded this email newsletter to you, sign up here to receive Tom’s weekly devotional in your email inbox.