No Sacrifice for Sins?

Today I had the responsibility of preaching a particularly difficult sermon.  I had to cover the issue of purity of heart from the "sermon on the mount."  The passage where Jesus explains that looking lustfully at a woman is adultery is difficult for almost any man to hear (Matt 5:28).  This week as I've been thinking through this message, I've wrestled with how best to approach it and what commitments God wants me to make in response to it.

Ann came for second service today (and third).  I grabbed my communion and went to sit with her so we could partake together.  After I'd eaten my wafer, I tipped my cup and noticed it was empty.  No juice....no blood....and the phrase that came to my mind is "no sacrifice for sins is left" from Heb 10:26.  The phrase is at the conclusion of a verse that explains, "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left."  It struck me that perhaps God was asking me to think through the gravity of the commitments I was making in my relationship with Ann.

As I sat there and pondered this possibility, I turned the empty plastic communion cup over in my hands and noticed it had a number written on the bottom.  23.  Of all numbers that could have been written there, no number could more aptly refer to our relationship.  We got engaged on November 23rd, and we got married on May 23rd.  It was as if I was receiving confirmation for my interpretation of what was taking place.

As a side note, I went and looked at a bunch of other communion cups afterward and they apparently all have numbers.  But I haven't seen another one with the number "23" written on it yet.  Perhaps God is trying to get my attention.