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See
that Train A-Comin’
It’s interesting to reflect on how my upbringing shapes the way I see
things – especially in Bible reading.
I rediscovered that fact the other day when I thought of Isaiah’s
vision: “In the sixth year of the reign of King Uzziah I saw the Lord
and His train filled the temple.” Well,
my Daddy used to take us boys down to the Charlotte, NC, Southern Railway
Station on Sunday afternoon from time to time. The main attraction of the
trip was the arrival of Old 1401-an amazing steam locomotive. It was an
old Class Ps-4 locomotive and when it steamed into the train station it
was like the arrival of a team of dragons. The ground shook before Old
1401 came around the curve to the station and chills would run up my
spine. Then it came around the curve all steam and smoke and bellowing
whistle. I can still sense the excitement of seeing that train come in! As
a matter of fact, that very locomotive is on display in the Smithsonian
Museum of History now and I remember the thrill of finding it there on my
last visit.
So early on,
when I would hear about Isaiah’s vision, you can surely guess the
picture I had – steam, smoke, and thunder filling the temple as Old 1401
tore between entrance and altar. Not
such a bad picture when I think about it.
When Isaiah saw the vision he was smitten with fear and thrill just
as Little Pres was when he saw Old 1401 a-comin’.
So that childhood experience really shaped my understanding of
Isaiah’s experience.
But we have to grow older and more sophisticated, and I did.
I realized that the train of God that filled the temple was like a
king’s train or a bride’s train–long and beautiful, representing the
one who walked at the head of the train.
The longer the cloth train, the more important was the one it
adorned. Not a bad
interpretation for an intellectual and it stood me in good stead until the
other day.
By now I have outgrown some of my sophistication and am not so sure about
symbolic trains of passive, following cloth.
I think I like Old 1401 better.
But now, the Lord has given me an even better way to see the
vision. The train is not a
smoking choo-choo nor is it a cloth adornment symbolizing power.
The train is
alive and it is praising God in voice and in walk.
The train has become, for me, all those who walk after God in
Christ. You and I fill that
temple. Not because we have
earned a place in the train but because God in Christ has baptized us in
His Holy Spirit – and by that grace we can follow Him as surely as a
train follows its tracks or its wearer.
Now when I read Isaiah 6. I see Duncans, Burkholders, Hertzlers, Babers,
Bells, Falts, Moyers, Kennells, Pruetts, Aydlottes, Shenks, Arringtons,
Grabers, Lancasters, Schaefers, Powells, a Hardy, Starks, Brennemans,
Wilsons, a Spiller, Gonzaleses, Bowleses, Iazzis, Habels, a Leeth, a
Perry, Broughtons, Shultzes, Nowlins, Weavers, Bensons, Landises, a
McKinney, Rancks, a Wyatt, Vaughns, a White, a Stoners, Clouds, Waltons,
and a whole host of those whose names are not known to me.
Do you see that train a-comin’?
By
Pres Nowlin
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