“And the winner is…
blue ticket number 3154!!… grand prize of four Jets tickets!! Congratulations to the grand prize winner of the evening!!”
My heart skipped a beat as I grasped the coveted winning blue ticket and made my way towards the direction of my coveted prize.
As the cheering of the gathered crowd faded, my mind raced ahead thinking of who would join me at my coveted NHL hockey game win.
Weeks later, pizza, popcorn and drinks in hand, the game was enjoyed by all from our prize seats in the stands, shouting loudly when deemed necessary.
Little did I know it was to be the last time in the unforeseeable future an NHL game would be played in our beloved hockey stadium in our home city along with all other NHL stadiums across the country.
Other sports followed suit creating a shutdown the likes of no one had ever seen.
History was being made.
Along with the sports world, the stadiums of Faith, big and small have been emptied and replaced by the likes of the online world. The latest being the push back of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics…. All creating an abandonment of the stands across the world…. Empty.
In the weeks to come, summer festivals, concerts and so much more continue to point to the reality of more empty stands.
There is a piercing of a sadness, grieving of sorts… just internalizing all the empty stands.
And yet, along with our sadness and grief, comes a hope… a hope found in the book of Hebrews where the stands are FAR from empty.
Filled with a cloud of witnesses… those who have gone on before, having won the victory on the other side of this planet.
Picture it.
Millions upon millions of the Saints, including those we have said goodbye to over the years on this planet…
my mom being one of them a year ago now. I can just imagine her in the midst of the cloud of witnesses… where she always loved to be… cheering her loved ones on❤️
Hold on!
Keep the faith!
Have NO fear!
A Whole New Perspective from the packed stadiums of Heaven.
It’s a picture I want to imprint in my mind daily as I see things unfolding day by day in these new moments in time the world is living in now.
There is no failing economy in Heaven. No sickness of any kind. No unseen enemy… the likes of which is blanketing our world in these moments.
It’s a place from which cheering multitudes thunder loud… the likes of which we have never experienced in all the stadiums of the world combined.
We are being encouraged from the heavenlies to keep running a race of perseverance in our faith and laying down all fears in a time that begs it mercilessly.
Open the ears of your heart and really listen. Close your eyes… imagine… Trust, despite the empty stands spanning this groaning globe of ours.
Heaven calls to us…
Keep on!… NO fear!… Trust!
From the stands that are still full❤️
In the Moment 