Being 84 years old has some advantages. For instance, I have a connection with a very different past. I remember the street lamp lighters who, every nite came along with their ladders, climbed up them and lit the gas street lights. The ice truck came by each day or so and you had the driver chisel off a hunk of ice with his ice pick for your ice box. And so on . . . and on . . . and on.

Well, I also remember how one day my father took me to a store as a little boy and we picked out a red wagon he was going to buy for me. He put down a couple of dollars—he didn’t have the full amount that it cost—and a tag was affixed to the wagon with my name on it. This “DOWN PAYMENT” was the first of several subsequent payments, until the entire amount was paid.  In the meanwhile, my wagon was safe—no one else could buy it. When the final payment was made, I got the wagon.  Meanwhile, I had to wait in anticipation!

This sort of transaction goes back a long way—even to biblical days! Listen to 2 Corinthians 1:22—

He has also sealed us and given us the Spirit as a down payment in our hearts

God has given us a down payment to assure us that our place in heaven and eternity is secure. No one else can have us (the Devil included) since He has claimed us and tagged us (sealed us) with the Holy Spirit. His Name has been placed upon us as His own.  One day He will fully give us all He has planned for us, and we will no longer have to wait with such a partial joy and blessing as that which the Spirit gives us now. We will then possess not only a wagon, but a wagon-load of blessing from Him! Be patient, Christian; you are sealed!