“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12: 1

The witnesses referred to in the above passage are saints from the past. We know this from Chapter 11. Some of the names are Abel, Enoch, Noah, Sarah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Others mentioned are Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the other Old Testament prophets. Included too are innumerable, unnamed martyrs who suffered homelessness, imprisonment, torture, and horrific deaths.

The thread that knits them all together into a great cloud of people is the faith they possessed. Our blessing is that we’re able to see that faith displayed through the pages of the Bible. We are surrounded not by a literal presence of theirs, but by their tales of trials and tribulations. In other words, their stories are witnesses to us.

That’s what the writer of Hebrews wants us to reflect on. The writer wants us to think about those believers looking forward in faith to the Messiah. Since we have a hindsight advantage – knowing of the Messiah’s incarnation, death, resurrection, and the meaning thereof – we are reminded that we also can become part of the cloud of witnesses; that we too can overcome by God’s grace. We are encouraged that we too can have, if not more, at least the same level of faith to persevere as the Old Testament believers did.

There are many great testimonies surrounding us from which to draw inspiration.