A couple of summers ago, I was teaching a class at Bible camp on the Holy Spirit. Now there are some folks who are much more spiritual than me and much more theologically educated than me who don't want to teach on the Holy Spirit. So you can imagine my trepidation at trying to teach this to a bunch of teenage girls...at summer camp...when the weather is really hot...and knowing that what my audience might really be thinking about is the cute guy they just met at breakfast.
But it was the topic we were given, so my co-teacher and I just decided to see what God would do with it and jumped in with both feet. Well, with all four feet, really.
On the second day, we were discussing this passage and talking about what it means to be "marked in him with a seal...who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance..." And up piped a small voice near the back of the teaching shelter that said, "It's like an engagement ring."
"Uh...what's like an engagement ring?", I asked, wondering how my lesson had gone so far afield.
"The seal or deposit guaranteeing our inheritance. It's like the engagement ring that you get as a 'deposit' (she did the air quotes) towards the wedding day."
But I think it rings true to the rest of us as well (pun intended). Just like we would make a promise to show up at the wedding by giving or accepting an engagement ring, one of the works of the Holy Spirit is to guarantee (or promise) our inheritance by sealing believers in Christ until the day He returns to take us home to heaven. And isn't it interesting that Scripture describes that day as a wedding feast? Maybe there is more to this analogy than we first thought.
Or maybe it's just a simple illustration to help us understand a complex subject. Out of the mouths of babes, you know.
Either way, I just hope my Holy Spirit ring is really sparkly!
- Holly Barrett
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