Thursday 05 November 2015

Psalm: Psalm 119:97-112

Background

(This imaginary person has heard those words read, but has notquite grasped their meaning.)

A cloud of witnesses? What's allthat about? You don't still think that heaven is up there on acloud, do you? Where's your common sense? I can't see rows and rowsof little legs dangling up above me. Can you? And why would they bewatching me, anyway? What possible interest could that be to them -presuming they were ever there, of course? What I know about cloudsis that they're either white and fluffy in a blue sky on a fineday, or black and gloomy and raining on me when it's miserableweather. Cloud of witnesses, indeed!

What do you mean, "What about theother kind of cloud?" Now you're trying to be clever, aren't you?Yes, I do know all about those theoretical 'clouds' where you canstore your computer information and files - and pay for it, ofcourse. And I know there must be trillions of pieces of wisdom andintelligence stored there along with a whole load of trivialrubbish too. But nobody has access to all of it, do they? You'vegot to have a password just to get into your own files, so what'syour point?

Supposing each one of us could haveaccess to all that wisdom? Well we get that on the internet, don'twe? OK, maybe our individual files have more personal experience inthem so we could learn about how others cope in a crisis, or have alife-changing faith. So what?

Wouldn't it help us cope better whenwe hit a crisis ourselves, knowing that other people understood andwere encouraging and supporting us as we struggled? Could do! But …! Oh, hang on a minute. I get it now. You mean that imaginary cloudof people hanging on to that imaginary cloud are the ones who arelike a crowd in the stadium cheering on the athletes as they racearound the track - willing them to win!

Well, why didn't you say that in thefirst place? I'll buy that!

To Ponder

• Some of the imagery in the Bible can be puzzling, or seemoutdated. How do you cope with that yourself, or explain it tosomeone who needs to understand?

• Who would you include in the cloud of witnesses who wouldsupport you and encourage you by their example of faith?

• Athletes have to train hard to compete. How do you train tosustain your faith?