Lent
March 31, 2017
Scripture Reading: Romans 8:6-11
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you. –Romans 8:9-11
The Spirit is tenacious. I once had a tenacious dog. I got him when he was barely six weeks old. He fit in the palm of my hand when he first came to live with me, and only weighed eight pounds when fully grown. He was the runt of the litter and his other siblings were picking on him. He had places chewed off his little ear from their mischief. I soon found he had epilepsy and was allergic to flee bites. Starting with several strikes against him, he became one of the sweetest dogs I ever knew, smartest too. He never met a stranger, loved everyone. He stayed in the kitchen during the day and had for a bed an old electric blanket that had outlived its usefulness. It was queen-sized and still had the metal elements for transmitting heat. Thus, it was very heavy. One evening, he disappeared from my side. I heard a strange noise and discovered him trying to pull the blanket with his tiny body and tinier teeth. He would not give it up so I just left him to wear himself out and returned to the living room. Sometime later he rounded the end of my sofa with blanket in tow pulling it up next to my chair. Turning around on it a couple of times, he laid down and went to sleep. He had pulled the blanket some 40 feet because he is by nature a creature of community, wanted his own bed but longed for the presence of others. Much like we long for God and a community of faith.
The Spirit continuously works to be in us and work through us. We only need open the door and welcome the Spirit. And yes, from the day of the blanket pull, my little guy used my lap for napping and his bed was moved to my bedroom for the night.