Recently I heard a story about a couple who moved into a new home, where a dove lived in an external eave of the house. They quickly came to love the dove but they also noticed that whenever they slammed a door, the dove flew off. He also flew away when he heard raised voices. The couple became anxious that one day the dove might not return home, so they made a consistent effort to close doors quietly and to not argue with one another!
In the bible it says that the Holy Spirit, like a dove, landed on Jesus and remained. We know that the Holy Spirit is within us and sometimes, when we feel pure joy, or a comforting warmth, that can be the Holy Spirit making himself known to us. However when we are out of sorts with one another, or are unkind, impatient or bad tempered, we put up a barrier against the Holy spirit being able to work within us, so, like a dove, He appears to fly away. When we let the barrier down the fruits of the spirit, such as love, joy, peace, generosity, kindness, patience, to name but a few, are enabled once again and the Holy Spirit can work freely within us. We then, empowered by the Spirit, can become channels of goodness and light in the world.
So now, whenever R and I have ‘words’ we imagine a dove flying away in consternation and we do our best to resolve our issues so that the dove wants to come back. It is said it is easy to grieve the Holy Spirit and this is my interpretation of what that might mean. Grieving the Holy Spirit (mentioned in Ephesians 4:30) is when you disobey the Word of God. You know what the Word of God says, but you don’t want to do it. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, so if you habitually lie, you grieve the Holy Spirit.
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