My mother recently asked me if the name Grace Lee Whitney rang a bell. I told her it did not. She proceeded to tell me that Grace Lee Whitney was the actress who played Yeoman Janice Rand in the original Star Trek series. In case you're not familiar, on Star Trek, she was the blond babe best known for her micro-mini uniform and unrequited crush on Captain Kirk. In real life, Whitney had had a versatile film and television career in the 1950s and 1960s, working with the biggest stars in Hollywood.

My mom then proceeded to tell me some interesting history on Whitney. After appearing in thirteen episodes of the 1966 season of Star Trek, her character was written out of the show. The sense of failure and rejection she felt sent her into a tailspin of alcoholism, drug abuse, and sexual immorality. She got to the point where she was drinking on skid row street corners right out of the bottle. Hospitalized, she was told by her doctors that the gin she had been drinking was eating a hole in her esophagus, and had nearly destroyed her liver. If she didn't stop drinking, they said, she would be dead within a couple weeks. Whitney was scared but she didn't know how to stop drinking.

A friend took her to a recovery group, where the group said the Lord's Prayer together. Although the prayer had always sounded like gibberish to her, at that moment it suddenly made perfect sense. It was the first time she ever really knew that God cared for her and she immediate stopped drinking and using drugs. In the weeks that followed, God led her on a journey to Israel. On a walking tour outside of Jerusalem, she came to a gate with a sign that read "Garden of Gethsemane." In her autobiography, The Longest Trek, Grace Lee Whitney recalls what happened next,

"I put my hands on the iron bars of the gate and looked through, into the Garden of Gethsemane. Suddenly, I felt weak, as if I was about to faint. I had to hold onto the bars to remain standing. Then I saw Jesus. He was beyond the iron bars, praying in the garden.

. . . I thought, But I'm Jewish! As if He could read my mind, He turned and looked at me and said, "So am I."

After that experience, Grace Lee Whitney gave her heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ. She was set free from her addictions, her enslavement to immorality, and her sense of failure. Today, she goes to Star Trek conventions and women's prisons and television talk shows, telling everyone who will listen about the Lord and what He has done in her life.

To quote Spock, I found her story "fascinating" and thought I'd share it here, as we observe Passover, Good Friday and Easter. (The above photograph is an ancient olive tree from the Garden of Gethsemane - striking, huh?)

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend, and may His Presence be very near.