“Since we are surrounded by so great cloud a of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith.” Heb.12:1-2
Lord Jesus, by many who love you, today is celebrated as All Saints Day—a day for honoring those who’ve gone before us in our journey Home. With great joy, I remember the saints-by-grace you’ve woven into my story. My Gospel-heroes are those whose humility and kindness make the Gospel beautiful and believable to me. They are faithful, gentle, often fragile jars-of-clay who emit the aroma of grace and life—not rightness and rigidity. They are models of repentant faith and Gospel-sanity. They are conduits of your compassion, joy, and care. Thank you for them and make me more like them, Jesus.
But as I remember with gratitude my “cloud of witnesses,” it is you, Jesus, upon whom I fix my gaze on you and set my heart. You are true, quintessential, and only perfect Saint—set apart for our salvation, and the object, Author and Perfecter of our faith. We are saints because of our union with you—not by our work for you. The garments of holiness we wear are garments of grace, not vestments for veneration. Jesus, it is your righteousness plus nothing that makes us “saintly.” Hallelujah and thank you.
We will run and finish our “race” by your grace—not by our stress, striving, and sweat. As the Gospel and your Spirit continue their work in us—free us to throw off even more clingy “worthless weights” and sins. Jesus, free us from sinfully under-believing the Gospel, from trying to be the 4th member of the Trinity in the lives of others, and from fears, attitudes, and lies your love would expel. So Very Amen.