The night my husband Steve proposed to me, I was expecting anything but a proposal. The weekend before, we had discussed at length whether or not I should sign up to teach another year at my school in rural Calvert County, which would commit us to another year of long-distance dating. I had already decided during that week to go ahead and sign my contract when Steve appeared at my classroom door that Friday afternoon. That evening, after dinner with friends, Steve proposed under the starry-bright winter sky. With joy, I accepted.

Once we made the visit to Connecticut for my parents' blessing, it was time to shop for the ring. I had no idea how complicated that whole ordeal would be. Diamonds vary greatly in clarity, color, and weight. As we went from jewelry store to jewelry store gathering facts and looking at options, I was overwhelmed. It was the biggest purchase Steve or I had ever made. We discussed the choices until I could hardly stand it another minute. I finally decided that if our relationship could survive picking the ring, we could survive marriage!

The custom of giving an engagement token goes back a long way. The early Anglo-Saxons required that the bridegroom break a valued object in half and give a part to the bride's father as a token of the promise that was made. In fact, the original Roman name for engagement ring, arrhae, meant "earnest money."[1] In AD 860, Pope Nicholas I required the engagement ring to be a required part of a marriage agreement. It was to be of a valued material, preferably gold, and represented a financial sacrifice for the groom-to-be.[2] Whatever the token, it was meant to symbolize the serious commitment on the part of the giver to fulfill his promise.

Christ identified Himself as the bridegroom and the church as His beloved bride. We have also received a token of His commitment to us. "Having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." (Ephesians 1:13-14) The Holy Spirit was given to the church as a valuable token symbolizing the commitment of the Bridegroom to fulfill His promise to His bride.

The actual Greek word, translated above as pledge, literally meant "first installment, deposit, or down payment."[3] A seal was given in New Testament times as a sign and proof of 1. a completed transaction, 2. ownership, or 3. security that the seal would not be broken.[4] It was given in earnest, much like when we make a down payment on a home: the buyer's pledge to purchase and pay the full price of the house.

A deposit is a promise that there is more to come.

According to Paul, what we are guaranteed by the deposit of the Holy Spirit is the glory of His inheritance (Ephesians 1:18). The life we now live is not the end of the story. Someday we will be living a new kind of life, free from the effects of sin, based on the work of the Son. This hope is what the heroes of faith were fixated upon: "All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed they were strangers and exiles on the earth . . . they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one." (Hebrews 11:13, 16)

Rather than a token piece of jewelry, which can be lost or destroyed, the Holy Spirit has taken up permanent residence within us as a pledge to what God has planned for our eternity. God dwells in man. Knowing what we possess should give us a confidence in our future and boldness in how we live out our faith. "Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful" (Hebrews 10:23).