Great Plains Daily Devotional for 1/27/2021

Hebrews 6:3-5

And we will do this, if God permits. For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, and 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,
 

The other day I was eating an apple. An ordinary, insignificant thing in and of itself. But I noticed that the taste of the apple was not a single taste. It was a blend of flavors – here sweet, there tangy, and over here quite tart. I suppose that the apple was not fully ripened when it was picked for there to be so many different qualities about it. But all the flavors, drawn together, made eating the fruit a pleasure.
 
It occurred to me that we are much like that apple. Some days of our lives are sweet while others are sour. Life may be best when the blend of days becomes a sweet/tart experience that allows us to appreciate the goodness of life.
 
The writer of Hebrews says that when we have tasted the heavenly gift, we “become partners with the Holy Spirit.” So, what IS this heavenly gift? I suspect it is many things to many people – and perhaps even several things to one person.
 
In these days of unrest and dis-ease in our world, I look around and I see a world that has many “flavors” to be tasted and shared. Every person – known and unknown – has something to share that can make the experience of our sheer existence better. If we do not taste the fullness of life that comes from the offerings of many different people and views, we miss out on what I believe must be the taste that God provides in the heavenly gift – the taste of a world where unity in diversity is possible, where partnership with the Holy Spirit is the norm, where hearts are changed and never turn away.
 

Prayer for Reflection

Jonah 3:1-5, 10
Psalm 62:5-12
1 Corinthians 7:29-31
Mark 1:14-20