Train

Daily writing prompt

You’re going on a cross-country trip. Airplane, train, bus, car, or bike?

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I’d definitely go for trains. I don’t travel much these days, but I do enjoy playing Train Simulator Classic and Train Sim World on my PC 😀. And I have fond memories of travelling around Britain and Europe on trains. I only flew a couple of times, but I feel kinda trapped on a plane, though I do enjoy playing Flight Simulator games.

Here are some more songs about trains:

• Midnight Train to Georgia – Gladys Knight & The Pips
• Long Train Runnin’ – The Doobie Brothers
• Last Train to London – Electric Light Orchestra
• Love Train – The O’Jays
• Night Train – Visage
• Downtown Train – Rod Stewart
• Peace Train – Cat Stevens
• Slow Train Coming – Bob Dylan
• Train of Love – Johnny Cash
• Mystery Train – Elvis Presley
• Last Train to Clarksville – The Monkees
• Train to Heaven – The Staple Singers
• I’m a Train – Albert Hammond
• This Train (Is Bound for Glory) – Johnny Cash
• Gospel Train (a.k.a. Get On Board, Little Children)
• The Gospel Train’s A‑Comin’
• Life’s Railway to Heaven

Here are a few of the gospel train songs:

Trains are often used as a metaphor of travelling to heaven. Funny that you never hear spiritual metaphors of other means of transport, at least I don’t.

Are there any trains in the Bible? Yes and No. The word “train” is used, but the trains aren’t anything like today’s trains. Here’s an example from the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon:

1 Kings 10:2
² And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.

I sometimes think of our unity with Jesus in terms of trains. When you board a train, you’re with all those on board, including the driver. I can think of Jesus as the train itself or the driver. Where He goes, we go. One of my happy moments back in the 1980s was coming home from college in Limerick to my hometown, Cork, on Friday nights by train. We’d approach a long dark tunnel, but the very moment we emerged from the tunnel, we were in Cork railway station. Life is a long journey, ending in the dark tunnel of death. But think of what immediately follows. Just as Jesus died and rose from the dead, we will rise.

They don’t have planes in the Bible either, but there’s a hymn with the lyrics, We shall rise with a shout, we shall fly!

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.