Was the day cool or warm? Where was I standing in the group of fellow travelers? I don’t remember, but it doesn’t matter. What I do recall is that when our guide finished filling us in on the history of the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens, a few men took off, one by one, to run the track.
The Panathenaic was built on the site of the original Greek stadium, but it was the now that captured my attention rather than the wreaths and ghosts of the past. I watched the guys take off, surrounded by some 50,000 marble seats, and saw their delighted wonder when they made it back to us, thrilled with their adventure as they imagined running with the athletes of the first Olympic competition.
Paul must have been there, too, before he wrote to the Hebrews: “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, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1-2).
Nothing in the air that day warned us that we would soon be startled to watch trees bowing in the wind when there was no wind. Or wanting to hide our ears from the sound of 10 semis taking off when there were no trucks near us. Then I saw the woman from California hit the ground. An earthquake! We all dropped for the few minutes that seemed to last forever.
“I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”
Saints were present in the chaos that followed. Many of them tried to untangle the mass of vehicles caught on roads with darkened traffic lights. A hairdresser went back into a shaking building to fetch water to douse her client’s permanent before it destroyed her hair. People soothed others shaken with fear.
But that’s different from the saints in the church, those who love the Lord and are faithful in their service. Those are the people who are God’s hands, holding us, lifting us up in support, reading God’s word, noticing and accepting the rest of us, living fully but looking eagerly to an eternity with the one we love so much.
If I could go back to Athens, I would lift my eyes to linger on a stadium packed with saints, imagining God’s stadium. I’m living on the field, busy with my busyness, but surely the blessed of today may sense the cheers from those holy people who have gone before.
In time, I will join them. You too? No ticket to buy. Paul left us the password in 2 Timothy 4:7. March into the stands, declaring, “I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith.”
