A Broken Engagement
On our recent trip to Boston, I heard something that gave me a new thought on a well-known scripture. It happened at one of the two highlights of the trip every year for me.
One highlight is, obviously, the race itself (i.e., The Boston Marathon). There is no way to describe the energy and feeling of marathon day in Boston unless you experience it. Not only are you awed by the determination and grit of the 30,000+ runners themselves, you find yourself surrounded by literally tens of thousands of strangers all rooting for each other and each other’s loved ones, all helping you look for your runner, and all united in a feeling of camaraderie.
The other highlight for me is, sadly, much less well-known and gravely under-attended. Every year, we attend Sunday worship services with the Lord’s church in Roxbury, Massachusetts. They are a loving, welcoming, sound group of believers whose singing always lifts my spirits and makes me happy to be their sister.
This year, the speaker was making a point about the Holy Spirit being our “guarantee [or down payment]” for salvation (2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5). He made a comparison I had not before considered. He compared this “promise” (Gal. 3:14; Eph. 1:13) to that of an engagement ring given by a man to his intended before the wedding takes place.
Stay with me here. Many people do not know that before I ever met Jeremiah I was engaged to someone else. Thankfully we realized that was not a good plan before we were in the covenant of marriage and I gave the ring back.
It was that thought of my giving the ring back that stuck with me in the analogy of the Spirit being like an engagement ring. The gift – the ring – is given to someone in good faith and, while either human party may break the engagement, it is usually the girl who gives the ring back.
In the scenario of the Gift being the Spirit, it is definitely given in good faith, but only one party can ever break the engagement. We, as humans, can choose to give back the gift. We can break the deal. We can reject God. But He will never reject us. His promise is eternal. His offer is eternal. His love is eternal.
Don’t break that engagement.
“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.” (Hebrews 6:4-6)
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AUTHOR: Amber Tatum
