Dr. Tom, the Fourth Dimension

[computer issues coupled with baby issues have made blogging a challenge lately, sorry]

Dad married Katie. Dad died. Katie married Dr. Tom. So by virtue of those marriages he is now in a convaluted grandfatherly relationship with my kids. He is having surgery Thursday. He calls it 'serious routine' surgery. Routine for the surgeons, not terribly routine for those under the scalpel. Prayers for his full recovery are requested.

Dr. Tom is one of the great mathematicians in our country (in the world). He is an energetic examplar of what is best in teaching, a wealth of knowledge coupled with a burning desire to share that knowledge. Whenever he visits us he attends school with my kids where he bedazzles them with a variety of geometric wonders. He can also do cross word puzzles at blinding speed.

These personal features are shared to make him more real for you and give added inspiration to pray, to intercede for his health and well being. But something he taught me, or led me to, is what I want to share.

Dr. Tom works in the geometric field of multi-dimensionality, in particular the fourth dimension. He shared some of his work as well as a love of a nineteenth century cleric who wrote a book about the subject. The book, Flatlands, imagines a sphere enterring a world of squares, triangles and circles. How would a three dimensional object explain life to individuals constrained to length and width?

What is depth in a world which is limited to flatlands? Of course, the idea is a launching point for asking about the fourth dimension. The world we live in, having height, width, depth, is three dimensional. But what happens when we try to go beyond that? Our language is no more adept than the flatlanders' to capture reality beyond our experience.

As Dr. Tom and I discussed, I gained a glimpse which helped me. [I hasten to add it was a tiny glimpse which his vision far exceeds!] Everyone recalls making graphs in school. We learned to make X and Y axis. On the vertical we put, for example, height. On the horizontal, perhaps, weight. Then we plotted various people's height and weight to see what trends appear. But what if we wanted to add sex? or age? or race? The multiplicity of aspects cannot fit on a simple two-dimensional graph. [Stick with me, this is going some place important.]

Sex, male or female, is independent of weight. It does not show up on a scale, but it is real. Age is also real. But saying 'six foot three inches' is age neutral. Real humans are a combination of countless dimensions. They interact and impact one another at times (like height and weight). Knowing about some (like age) does not give much information about others (like sex). So we humans are multidimensional.

The world we live in can be measured in many ways. The measures are, however, limited. Time is helpful to measure age, but it is terribly unreliable as a scale. "I weigh two weeks" is nonsensical.

God is in another dimension. He permeates our own world, even if He is not captured by the measures we use. That is why, like a sphere in a two dimensional world, He can enter into our world and appear like one of us (a sphere looks like a circle in a two dimensional world, except it gets bigger and smaller as it passes through the two dimensional plane). We see, in Jesus, God in a human life. There is more there, but it cannot be discerned by our eyes unaided. He is totally human, just like us, but there is an additonal dimension (divinity) which is not observable in our world.

Theology tries to talk about things which are beyond our understanding. They are mysteries. The best way to understand a mystery is by analogy, metaphor and imagery. If we look and listen, sometimes we get a glimpse.

There is so much more to reality than we can grasp. It is important to maintain a sense of wonder and joy. To be a child, even a seventy year old child, full of appreciation for the beauty of the world, is a special gift. The insight into the multidimensionality of the world was a watershed moment for me. It was a brief second when I sort of "got it." Thanks for that Dr. Tom. God bless and heal you!