Ian McCormack was diving for lobster on the small Island of Mauritius when he was stung by five Box-Jellyfish. Scientists quote this particular type of Jellyfish as being among the most venomous creatures in the world and a sting from a single Box-Jellyfish often proves to be fatal.

“By the time an ambulance arrived my body was totally paralysed and necrosis had begun to set into my bone marrow. En-route to the hospital I began to see my life flash before me. I was an atheist – but I knew I was nearly dead and I didn’t know if there was life after death or whether there was just nothing,” Ian said.

The ambulance stopped and they placed him in a wheel chair, racing him into the hospital. The nurse took his blood pressure twice but could not find a pulse as his veins had collapsed. The doctors tried to save his life by injecting anti-toxins and dextrose, but to no avail. Within a few minutes Ian slipped into eternity…

“I found myself in a very dark place, not realizing where I was. So I tried to find a light switch, thinking I was still in the hospital – but as I reached out into the dark I couldn’t touch anything. Reaching to touch my face I found my hand go straight through it. It seemed so bizarre, as I knew I was standing there but couldn’t touch any part of my physical body. I began to sense that this wasn’t just a physical darkness – there was something else there. I could feel a cold eerie feeling as though something or someone was looking at me. From the darkness I began to hear men’s voices screaming at me telling me to ‘shut up’, that ‘I deserved to be there’, that I was ‘in Hell’.”

Ian couldn’t believe it. But as he prayed in desperation, a beam of light shone through the darkness and lifted him upward. He says,

“I felt like a speck of dust being drawn up into a beam of sunlight. I found myself standing in the presence of awesome light and power. I felt pure unadulterated Love flow over me. Love, I thought, how could God love me? I’ve taken his name in vain, I’ve slept around, I’m not a good man, but no matter what I said, waves of His unconditional Love continued to flow over me. I found myself weeping uncontrollably in His Presence. I could see a man standing in front of me, but he was not like anyone I’d ever seen before in my life. His garments were shimmering white in colour. I knew I was looking upon God. As I looked toward His face the intensity of the light seemed to increase  – you couldn’t make out the form of his face as the light was so bright. Moving closer waves of more Love began to flow towards me, and I felt very safe…  I knew I belonged here, that God had created me to live here – I knew I was home.”

But God had other plans for Ian. It wasn’t yet time for him to go to heaven.

“I was just about to enter in and explore, when God stepped back in front of me, and asked me this question. ‘Now that you have seen – do you wish to step in or do you wish to return?’ God then spoke to me and said If I wished to return – I must see things in a new light. I understood that to mean that I must begin to see through his eyes of love, peace, joy, forgiveness, from His Heavenly perspective, not my temporary earthly perspective. Looking back towards the tunnel again I could see a vision of all my family, and thousands and thousands of other people. I asked God who all these people were, and He told me that if I didn’t return then many of these people would not get a chance to hear about Him.”

Ian told God that he did wish to go back for the sake of his mother, and for those who had not yet heard about God’s love. So God sent him back.

“I was lying back on a hospital bed with my right leg elevated, cupped in the hands of the young Indian doctor who had been trying to save my life. He had a scalpel or some sharp instrument in his hand and he was prodding the base of my foot like a dead piece of meat. Something seemed to spook the doctor and he quickly turned his head to see my right eye open, looking at him… Terror struck his face and I got the distinct impression that he felt he has just seen a dead man looking at him…”

The medical staff were shocked and amazed to see Ian alive, literally back from the dead! The fact that he awoke at all was an extraordinary miracle.

That same night God completely healed Ian. The next day he discharged himself and walked out of the hospital unaided. Ian went to the beach, where the Creole fishermen who had seen him the day before fled in terror, believing him to be a ghost! Over the next 6 weeks he read the entire Bible.

“I have never been the same, and believe that I saw our Lord Jesus Christ in His Glorified form as in Revelation. 1:13 –18.”

Ian’s story has been made into a movie entitled ‘The Perfect Wave’ starring Scott Eastwood, Cheryl Ladd, Rachel Hendrix, Paddy Lister, Jack Halloran, Diana Vickers, Scott Mortensen, Nikolai Mynhardt, Rosy Hodge and Matt Bromley.

Story by Ralph Burden

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