Day 31: Carbon Ribs

John Mark McMillan has a sound that can easily transition from the worship room to the radio.  I found this song on Spotify at the start of break.  The name itself is catchy - Carbon Ribs, but it also offers a valuable reminder. 

The chorus says this:

Cause I'm a dead man now
With a ghost who lives
Within the confines of
These carbon ribs

  

Everyday I wear the same necklace.  It was a gift from my parents, and one day if I lose it or it gets taken, I'll have to remind myself it is just a thing.  But I will always remember why I chose this necklace and what it serves as a reminder of.  The pendant on the necklace is a heart with the Irish trinity in it.  The Irish use a three pointed symbol - the Irish trinity knot - to symbolize the Holy Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).  That is where the Holy Spirit is - in my heart.  There is its dwelling place.  

I often overlook the Holy Spirit.  I can picture God and Jesus - both with bodies and as beings.  I can relate to God as a parent.  I can relate to Jesus as a brother or a friend.  I have never seen a ghost or a spirit.  I don't believe in them, in the Casper sense of the term.  But the Holy Spirit is within me.  It is hard to imagine anything closer than residing within my heart.

Carbon Ribs gives a great illustration.  The Holy Spirit is the life within me.  My body is finite.  It is carbon.  My physical being came from the dust, and to the dust it will return.  God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, is what gives me life.  We often think of a ghost or a spirit as something that is dead - but the Holy Spirit is very much alive.

One of the verses of the song says this: 

A thousand miles of pain I'm sure
Led you to the threshold
Of my hearts screen door
To tell me what it is I'm dying for  

That is another cool thing about our anatomy.  God gave us a cage, a gate in our torso.  He knew it would house and protect something important.  He put a heart inside that cage.  One that pumps blood and keeps our body alive.  He left space it in for something to inhabit it, so it would never be empty.  He left room for His spirit.  When we read that our body is a temple in the Bible, it is not about what it is adorned with, or how it appears.  A temple is a dwelling place for God.  We are a dwelling place for God.

~SP

This is the Irish trinity knot.  For Irish Christians it is the representation of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  I like that there are three distinct points, but you can't tell where the limbs start or end.