Covers and Covered

There were several large, foreign-looking men in the corridor. They came from Eastern Europe or those lands bordering Russia and Iran; I noted the tasteless earrings that several of them wore next to their ill-shaven faces. They had invited me inside to witness what was happening in an adjacent room, into which there was a window. Scientists were performing some procedure, but something was not right. There was a noise beyond my field of site. A woman - or was it a robot? or a monster? - came running towards our glass window from another part of the building. She was screaming that she wanted to get out. My foreign acquaintances began to open the connecting door, but I closed it up again. This creature must remain inside, I instinctively knew. Too late. The door was opened and out she charged, first into our corridor and then into the space beyond.

Doubtless, readers with ‘dream ministries’ will savour the interpretation of this little number. If you do fancy yourself an interpreter of dreams, I would advise you not to bother writing in: my mind is an overfertilized field. It plays when it should rest and rests when it should work. Having an exciting, nay, scary dream, is not terribly remarkable, but my response upon waking was: I imagined the shrieking fugitive to be running about my landing and staircase; as a defence, I pulled the covers over me. If there really was a female berserker charging about my home, I should very much doubt the protective qualities of a Continental Quilt. Thankfully, my opponent was imaginary so my duvet’s defensive mechanisms were not put to the test. The feeling of being covered was sufficient to allow a return to sleep and a further episode of nocturnal imaginings.

Charles Wesley’s hymn Jesus, Lover of my Soul includes the line ‘cover my defenceless head’. This is based upon Psalm 140:7 in which the psalmist sings:

O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation,

You have covered my head in the day of battle. (NKJV)

This is perhaps referring to the metal helms worn by soldiers, without which a well-aimed arrow or spear-thrust instantly terminates a military career. On the other hand, Adam and Eve in Genesis 3:7 manufacture inadequate ‘coverings’ of leaves for their newly found sense of shame, which the Lord replaces with tunics of skin. In 1 Corinthians 11:15, Paul commends a woman’s

…long hair, it is a glory to her; for her hair is given to her for a covering.

Coverings in scripture can be desirable and undesirable; my duvet seemed a poor cover to me when I was alert, but perfectly acceptable to sleepy me. One day, all of us shall give account to God. All of us have sinned and offended Him in many ways. The Christian, however, can claim that his sin is ‘covered’: it may not be yet removed, but it is overshadowed by something greater: the Cross of Christ and His shed blood. The late Victorian hymn Would you be free from your Burden of Sin?’s chorus goes:

‘Are you washed in the blood? In the soul-cleansing blood of the Lamb?’

This seems a rather unpleasant picture, but the sin which is covered up us uglier still. If tonight, when I retire to my bedchamber, I do not dream the night away but actually die, I need not fear. My sin is dark and ugly, but it is covered by the blood of Jesus, every single stain of it. On account of the prosecutor’s eloquent zeal and the Judge’s terrifying righteousness, I need not tremble, for the Blood covers it all.

…how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Hebrews 9:14, NKJV