The Dove That Did Not Come Back

“The heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.” (Matthew 3:16, ESV)

Noah sent out a dove from the ark and it came back, because it found nowhere to rest (Genesis 8:9). He waited seven days and sent it out again. This time it came back with an olive leaf in its beak, which meant the waters were receding. He waited another seven days and sent it again, and this time it did not return. It had found a place to land.

Matthew records that when Jesus came up out of the water at his baptism, the Spirit of God descended like a dove and alighted on him. The word alighted is the same idea: the dove landed, and it stayed. This was not a passing anointing or a temporary visitation. This was the Spirit finding the one person in human history on whom he could rest without reservation, the one who would never give him a reason to leave.

Jesus went from the Jordan River directly into the wilderness (Matthew 4:1), and the Spirit went with him. He went into Galilee “in the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:14). He stood in the synagogue at Nazareth and read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” (Luke 4:18). At every point in his ministry, the dove was still there, because nothing in Jesus ever grieved it away.

Paul’s instruction in Ephesians 4:30 is jarring in its directness: “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God.” The Spirit can be grieved. He is a Person with sensibilities, and there are things we do that cause him to withdraw not from us, as believers, but from intimacy with us. Bitterness grieves him. Corrupt speech grieves him. Falsehood grieves him. Paul lists them because his readers were doing them. We are not different.

But here is what the baptism story holds for us: the Spirit came to land, not to hover. He does not want to be a passing presence in your life. He is looking for somewhere he can rest. The question this month is not whether the Spirit is in you; if you have believed in Jesus, he is. The question is whether he is comfortable there. Whether, when he looks at what you have been thinking about and talking about and choosing this week, he finds a place to settle.

Prayer

Holy Spirit, you are not a wind that passes through; you are a dove that wants to land. I acknowledge today that I have sometimes made you uncomfortable with my words, my choices and the thoughts I have entertained. I am sorry. I do not want to grieve you. I want my life to be a place where you can rest without reservation. Search me today. Show me anything that is making you reluctant to settle. I will deal with it, not because I am afraid of losing you, but because I love your presence more than I love the things that crowd it out. In the name of Jesus, Amen.