In all of my tentative forays into learning about websites and other computer-related things, I came across the idea of ’embedded systems’. An embedded system is a computer system with a dedicated function within a larger mechanical or electrical system. It is embedded as part of a complete device often including hardware and mechanical parts. Embedding an image within a webpage or email means that the image is visible within the webpage or email without having to link to another source: in email, for example, this would mean that you can see the image when you open the email without having to click on a link to see it. The advantage is it’s quick and easily visible; the disadvantage is the file size!
Anyway, in all these musings on things embedded, I started musing about the word itself. ‘To embed’ has a number of meanings, as given below:
1. To fix firmly in a surrounding mass: embed a post in concrete; fossils embedded in shale.
2. To enclose snugly or firmly.
3. To cause to be an integral part of a surrounding whole.
4. To assign (a journalist) to travel with a military unit during an armed conflict.
5. Biology To enclose (a specimen) in a supporting material before sectioning for microscopic examination.
Hebrews 6:13-20 talks about the certainty of God’s promise and says that His promises come with the guarantee of His own nature. We read ‘When God made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one greater for him to swear by, he swore by himself.’ (Heb 6:13) There was no one greater for Him to swear by, so the oath had His own guarantee; His very being secured the promise. We who rely on God’s promises for our hope can be encouraged because God cannot lie and so ‘we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure.’ (Heb 6:19) Hope is effectively embedded in our lives: it becomes an integral part of a surrounding whole; God fixes hope firmly within our lives. Ps 25:5 says ‘my hope is in You all day long.’ Our hope is not in our own prowess or skills or abilities but in God’s unfailing love. (Ps 33:20, 22)
The analogy is not quite perfect, for obviously God is the source of our hope and it could be argued that He is not embedded within us in the sense that He is far above all, far greater than we are, transcendent. But on the other hand, He does dwell within us (Rom 8:10) and so in a sense, we have hope because we have God; the two cannot really be separated. God is the source of our hope and this becomes an anchor for us, firm and secure. The mystery, Paul says, is that Christ is in you, the hope of glory. (Col 1:27) Having hope embedded within us is better than any computer system or image!
