Today I have a good news story to share. I was moved and encouraged by these scenes, as it seems were millions of people around the world.

Fiji has won the men’s Rugby 7s at the Tokyo Olympic Games. I reckon they deserve another gold for singing! Following their win in the final against New Zealand, the players formed a team huddle in the middle of the pitch and burst into song.

There was no hoarse shouting as we’re accustomed to with our tuneless Aussie Rules Footballers and there was no silent mouthing by embarrassed children at a school concert. This was loud, harmonic and beautiful singing.

Australia’s Olympic broadcaster, Channel 7, couldn’t miss such a positive Olympic story. They even mentioned the lyrics. Or rather, they managed to quote one line of the song, “We have overcome.”

I can imagine people thinking, this must be a sporting anthem that celebrates the glory of sport. But as I listened one can hear other words in addition to ‘we have overcome’.

There is more than this single triumphal line. The song continues by pointing to how they have overcome, and indeed, what it is they have overcome.

Here are the 4 lines of the song,

We have overcome

We have overcome

By the blood of the lamb           

And the word of the Lord

Far from being about Rugby or sport, the words are in fact a quotation from the Bible, 

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.” (Revelation 12:11)

While I love their singing and the joy in their faces, there is more gold here to love. The Fijian team have not only won Olympic gold, but it seems as though they know of an even greater victory that lays ahead and that has been made secure by the complete and amazing sacrifice of God’s only Son, the Lord Jesus. Our world is filling up with frustrations and disappointments and hurts, and we are all slowly accumulating a weight of guilt for past transgressions. These words from the book of Revelation are truly monumental, even on a scale that beats the Olympics.

You see, while we were witnessing a memorable Olympic moment, we were also glimpsing something of eternal significance and heavenly wonder. I can’t wait to join my Fijian brothers one day and sing this song around the very throne of God.