Chosen and Redeemed: Marked and Sealed

 

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,  Ephesians 1:13

 When you join a club, there are often markers that you gain to signify your membership. Take AAA for example, many people will end up with an AAA sticker on the back of their vehicle once they’ve signed up and paid their dues. A more permanent example would be a tattoo someone gets when they join a gang. These are outward signs that the world can see to identify you with a group or cause. When you accept Christ as your Savior and join the family of God, you don’t get a sign imprinted on your forehead telling everyone – but that doesn’t mean that people won’t know. You see, as a Christian, you now have the Holy Spirit living within you. That is your seal, your marker of belonging. While you may not be able to see Him in someone as markedly as a tattoo, you will still see Him if you are looking – and sometimes even if you aren’t!

 Once the Holy Spirit takes residence in a person, they are changed – they are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). The old things about them have passed away, they are dead. God’s newness has come to them. How they act and interact with their world will be a testimony to Who is at work and present within them. This is why sometimes you can just know someone is a Christian without ever having had a spiritual conversation with them. You can see it in them!

 Humans were designed with a need for belonging. That’s the appeal of gangs to those who don’t have a sense of belonging in other areas of their life like family or church. We need to feel like we are a part of something bigger than ourselves. While it is nice to be alone sometimes (I do enjoy a good solo trip occasionally), overall we do not do well with loneliness. A great deal of this learned this in the last five years as we experienced isolation in quarantining for COVID. We need to be together, to be seen and known. In Jesus, we find this in its most perfect and beautiful form, how it was intended to be, what we were designed for.

 When I was a kid, we used to play T-Ball in school. Everyone would line up, two team captains would be chosen, and then they would go down the line, picking out their team members. Guess who was always the last picked? Nope, you’re wrong! I was usually second to last. There was this little kid that couldn’t even pick up the bat on her own that usually got picked after me. I’ve always sucked at sports, I’m not sure why because both of my parents were very athletic and were on multiple sports teams as I was growing up. My brothers played football and wrestled, I grew up watching football and basketball and baseball on tv and in person. I was surrounded by sports, but it didn’t rub off on me. I hated t-ball days at school. I hated being the person someone was stuck with. I hated my ineptitude being on display for the whole school to see (ok, there were 20 kids in the whole school, but still!). Imagine my joy when I learned that Jesus had picked me! Not just last, or second to last, but before the foundation of the world. He looked through time and space and history as He put together His dream team. He sorted out who would be good at what and what skills He would cultivate in people to have a perfect mix. Out of all the billions of choices, Jesus saw little old me. I can’t say that I have any particular skills or talents that would make me stand out in a crowd, but Jesus knows me even better than I do. He knows what He needs me to do, where He needs me to be, and He saw a purpose for me in His Kingdom. I’m certainly not going to argue with that!

Here’s the Thing: I may not have a tattoo or wear a team jersey that tells the world I’m on God’s team, but I believe that you can still tell. When you spend time with me, when you read what I write, when you see what I post, it should be evident that the Holy Spirit is the one in charge, and He is cultivating in me the skills and talents that He intended before the beginning of the world for me to contribute to His Dream Team!