BLESSINGS
A blessing can bring health , can protect in a foreign land , can strengthen in moments of danger . For thousands of years blessings are given and received , God ’ s blessing wants to give to life the happiness of fulfilment .
Many church services conclude with the wonderful Blessing of Aaron : “ The Lord said to Moses , ‘ Tell Aaron and his sons : This is how you are to bless the Israelites . Say to them : “ The Lord bless you and keep you ; the Lord make his face shine upon you ; the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace .” ( Numbers 6 )
‘ Much luck and much blessing on all your walks ’ is a birthday song in Germany . Maybe ‘ luck ’ is another way of saying ‘ blessing , health , riches ’, we somehow shy away from the word ‘ blessing ’. Just like we prefer to say ‘ fate ’ instead of God ’. Blessing is in our mind when we say Good Bye ’ to our children as they leave home to go on a journey , saying ‘ Adieu ’. Sometimes we actually do say ‘ God Bless ’, when we leave somebody in hospital , especially when you have to think it is for the last time you see them alive .
You can ’ t say : ‘ See you later ’, as people do in Glasgow , maybe you glance at them through a glass window on your way out and lift up our hands to wave , as if to send a blessing through the window . Do we actually shy away from giving somebody a blessing , just as we say : instead : ” Look after yourself ”, or even rubbing your hands when sitting down for a meal and say “ Bon appetite ”; in Germany people often say : ‘ mealtime ’ –‘ Mahlzeit ’, which is short for ‘‘ blessed mealtime ’, at a time where there would be a prayer .
An old vicar in our Suffolk village once asked me : “ Did you give anybody a blessing today ?”
I had blessings from some unexpected quarters , once it was a lady on Glasgow station , who had lost her scarf and I ran after her to hand it back ; and another time it was the Asian taxi driver who sat me down outside St Oswald ’ s .
Yes , we do appreciate it , we do look for the message : ‘ I am thinking good of you and wish you well ’. These are words like sunbeams giving us warmth , hands that help , glances that make you happy , words that make a situation better .
They send positive messages into the world , like harmonising music , a kind of positive energy which lifts up our world .
God ’ s Blessing is the force which empowers , that drives the world . . And all happiness is a form of blessing , all loving kindness can be felt like a blessing .
It is like being wrapped in the cloak of God .
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