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Who’s a hero then? Don’t we just build up our heroes to shoot them down again? Poor old Tim Henman, carrying the country’s hopes and then a bad day on court. Poor old David Beckham, this one bent a long, wrong way. But are they actually any different now than when they were heroes? I don’t think so. Can we tell what goes on in their minds, when they concentrate on the vital serve, the critical kick, or when they look defeat in the eye? We can only guess. That’s all we can do, even with our closest friend or our soul mate. There will always be that bit you cannot get into, the bit you don’t understand. There is only one who really knows us. Thousands of years ago it was written in Psalm 139, which starts: “O Lord, you have searched me and you know me You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord” It’s a bit scary, isn’t it? To be known that well and by God our Father, from whom we cannot hide. Jesus told stories about judgement day. You can see some in Matthew’s gospel chapter 25. The day when everything we have done will be weighed up by one who knows us so well. And what he will weigh up, he can see now. If this sounds like hellfire preaching - tough. Far better people than me have felt this way. Poets like John Donne and T S Eliot have expressed it far better. But they and I can fall back on another picture that Jesus gave us. In chapter 10 of John’s gospel he says: “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me – just as the Father knows me and I know the Father – and I lay down my life for the sheep.” In spite of all he sees in us, our God, our shepherd that knows us so well, lived among us and laid down his life for us. The broken relationship can be restored by the life laid down, the price paid to set us free. If we accept this we have no more need to fear and every reason for joy. Robin Dawson Published in the August 2004 edition of the Church Magazine
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