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A Glorious Grandstand

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.  Hebrews 12:1

 

If the angels rejoice over one sinner who repents (Luke 15:10), then the angelic hosts are numbered among the spectators in the Heavenly grandstands. They are included among those who are referred to as "so great a cloud of witnesses" (Hebrews 12:1); and they never miss any of the details of our Earthly pilgrimages.

Nor does our God--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit--overlook what goes on here. As the Bible says, "All things are . . . opened unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13).

In his book Though I Walk Through the Valley, Dr. Vance Havner tells of an old preacher who worked into the night on a sermon for his small congregation. His wife inquired why he spent so much time on a message he would give to so few. To this the minister replied, "You forget, my dear, how large my audience will be!" Dr. Havner adds, "Nothing is trivial here if heaven looks on. We shall play a better game if, 'seeing we are encompassed,' we remember who is in the grandstand!"

From, HOPE for Each Day: Morning & Evening Devotions, by Billy Graham.