Cowboy Bob's Campfire Conversations

Cowboy Bob: Movie Star

Well, maybe I wasn't a star, but I really did have a part in a major motion picture.

Okay, so it was a very small part, but if you squint real hard you can still tell it's me.

If you've got good eyes.

And you'd better look quick, 'cause I'm on the screen for maybe two or three seconds. (Some friends timed it, and said it was eight seconds, but I think their watch may be slow.)

It was the Disney film, Iron Will, and I played the role of the preacher at the funeral for Will Stoneman's dad. (See Q&A 245. What happened to the real "Iron Will"?)

I kept askin' for a job with a horse underneath me. Instead, they dressed me up like a South Dakota parson in 1914. I guess they figured I'd behave myself if they made me look respectable.

Believe me, them Hollywood folks sure pay attention to details. You can't hardly see it in the picture, but the Bible I'm carryin' is a sure 'nuf genuine pulpit-thumper's Bible from before World War I.

Now, besides gettin' paid a whole thirty-four bucks for the job, I learnt a helpful lesson.

Back when I was just a new believer, I heard some wise guy pokin' fun at the Good Book.

"No way,"" he said, "can that book be true! Just look in the book of Revelation. It says the streets of heaven will be made of gold that you can see through, like glass."

"Everybody knows," he laughed, "that you can't see through gold!"

Well, I found out later that the fellow hadn't told the whole truth. In Revelation 21, it says, "...and the street of the city was pure gold, as it were transparent glass."

That fellow upset some folks, but not me. I figured that a God who could make gold in the first place could change it any way that suited Him. If he wanted it clear, or purple, or even candy-stripe, it was okay by me.

What's all that got to do with the movie?

Well, that old Bible they had me carry looked pretty dingy around the edges. Sort of a dark brownish-gray.

Until the sun hit it.

 Then, the gold on the page edges flashed bright as the sun itself. It was almost enough to blind a fellow.

Without the sun, you just saw through the gold - like through a piece of glass - to the old paper underneath. With the sun, all you saw was the shine of the gold.

Like it says a couple of verses further on in Revelation:

"And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof. And the Nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it...."

Way I see it, that street would look like plain old dirt, except for the bright light of God shinin' on it.

But then, I'm only a movie preacher.

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