Covenants and marshmallows

Remember that famous marshmallow experiment?

You know, that one they did at Stanford years ago where they placed a marshmallow in front of a kid and told them that if they didn’t eat it before the adult returned, they would get two marshmallows.

(For the record, my mom always said that I was the type of kid who would have waited for the two marshmallows, even from a super young age.)

As I’ve studied about the famous covenant that God makes with Abraham, one thing that really caught my eye is that so many of the blessings of this covenant are for AFTER Abraham’s lifetime!

The Lord makes promises that Abraham’s seed will know God, and that “unto thy seed have I given this land”. (Genesis 15:18)

His seed were promised land and great spiritual blessings, but most of this would not be during Abraham’s lifetime.

And yet Abraham still rejoiced in this covenant!

Not all of our covenant blessings are going to be fulfilled while we are here on the earth.

Some will, just like Abraham was still given a firstborn son. And certain covenants, such as our baptismal promises to always have His spirit to be with us, are being fulfilled constantly here on earth.

But there’s also a huge portion of our “reward” that we can barely even imagine right now.

Promises for our future posterity that won’t be fulfilled until after this life.

Promises about our own future that won’t be fulfilled until the eternities.

Blessings of peace and rest that we can get glimpses of now, but that might not be fully realized until much later.

There is so, so, so much good that God gives us right now on the earth.

It’s like He is giving us one marshmallow and telling us we can enjoy it now.

But there is also another marshmallow waiting on the other side.

Probably a million more marshmallows, actually.

So are we willing to be patient? To look for the blessings filling our life now, but also to expect so much more in the future?

Covenants are powerful and binding and real, and we can count on God to pour out the blessings when we fulfill our portion, even if that means practicing some delayed gratification.

Happy Studying!

-Cali Black