“And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:11).

There are days when we need a reminder that in Christ you are not alone. Today is one of those days. Not only are you not alone, but God himself dwells within you.

As told by Max Lucado, Taylor was a popular eighth grader. She played volleyball and made silly videos with her brother. “But in the spring of 2010, a skiing accident took Taylor’s life. What followed was eventually every family’s worst nightmare: a funeral, a burial, a flood of questions and tears. Her parents decided to donate Taylor’s organs to needy patients. 

“Few people needed a heart more than Patricia Winters. Her heart had begun to fail five years earlier, leaving her too weak to do much more than sleep. Taylor’s heart gave Patricia a future again.

“Taylor’s mom had only one request: she wanted to hear the heart of her daughter. She and her husband, Todd, flew from Dallas to Phoenix and went to Patricia’s home. The two women embraced for a long time, soon to be joined by Todd. After a few moments, Tara took a stethoscope, placed it against Patricia’s chest, and heart Taylor’s heartbeat again. 

“It’s so strong,” the mother whispered. “She is very strong,” Patricia assured. Mom and Dad took turns listening. They heard the still-beating heart of their daughter, even though it indwelled a different body.” 

Lucado comments on this touching story and connects it to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in his people: “Grace is God as heart surgeon cracking open your chest, removing your heart, poisoned as it is with pride and pain, and replacing it with his own. His dream isn’t just to get you into heaven, but heaven into you.”*

Speaking to this same idea, John Calvin says: “This… is the wonderful work of God, that in earthen and frail vessels the hope of heavenly glory resides.”**

Who are we that we should be loved as generously as this? 

Oh, that’s right, now I remember. We belong to God himself. 

“His dream isn’t just to get you into heaven, but heaven into you.”

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Notes:

–*Max Lucado, Wild Grace (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2012), 18.
–**John Calvin, Calvin’s New Testament Commentaries: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, trans. T.H.L. Parker (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1965), 322.
–Bible quotes are from the NIV.