Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us…(Hebrews 12:1, NRSV)
I’ve written before about my tepid feelings toward Halloween (including the time I tried to slip Urban Village cards with candy into trick-or-treaters’ bags only to have some kids accuse me of shorting them on the candy), but the nice thing about Oct. 31 is that Nov. 1 comes a day later. All Saints Day.
I don’t have a lot of memories of commemorating All Saints Day in my church growing up, but I embrace it more and more as the years go by. The United Methodist Church defines it as “a day of remembrance for the saints, with the New Testament meaning of all Christian people of every time and place.” I like to think of it as Cloud of Witnesses Day, referencing the beautiful passage from Hebrews.
Our staff-meeting devotion this week was inspired by All Saints Day and we were asked to think about a saint in our lives and share a story of their impact. The first person to pop into my mind was my mother-in-law, who died in 2005. Specifically, I thought about a consistent act of grace she shared that ties in very nicely with All Saints Day. It may not seem like much, but my memory is that every time we visited her, she smiled a big smile, gave me a hug and said, “Welcome home.”
Of course, her house wasn’t the house I grew up in. But her sense of hospitality and welcome made me feel like no matter where I saw her, I was indeed “home.”
All Saints Day is a beautiful time to say thank you to God for all those who make up our cloud of witnesses, those that we have known and those we haven’t. They are the saints who, at the end of the day, make up the divine chorus of voices that welcome us home, into God’s arms, giving us the strength and inspiration to be models of welcome for others. Who is in your cloud? How might you live your life so that you can become part of the cloud for someone else?