Hope

In the past week I’ve been reading in Hebrews 10 about persevering in the faith. Sometimes the circumstances of our lives cause us to wonder, “Is God really there?  If God is really there, is God really there for me?”  There are times that we aren’t sure what faith is or whether we have any.  How do we know?

Hebrews 11:1 tells us that faith is assurance in what we hope for and conviction about what we do not see. Many of us have memorized that verse, but may wonder about “assurance’ and “conviction”.  Those words convey a confidence that we might not have.  But even if assurance and conviction aren’t in reserve, we can always hope. 

What do you hope for?  In what or  in whom do you have confidence?

May the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.    Heb 13:20-21

The Priestly Blessing

The Priestly Blessing, also known as the Aaronic Blessing, is probably my favorite. This comes from Numbers 6 and is the blessing God directs Moses to give to Aaron and his sons to bless the Israelite people.   I love the idea of God making his face shine upon me. 


The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his face to you and grant you peace.


As you travel through this day, may your face reflect God's to all you encounter.

Bless you

A few years ago, I taught in the elementary Sunday School.  We used a curriculum that included an individual blessing for each child at the end of the lesson.  Since I was the lead teacher, I was to bless any other adults in the room, then an adult would touch a child, look into their eyes and give them the blessing.  Hmmmm.  Seems a tad....uncomfortable.  I mean, who goes around pronouncing blessings on other people?  Just priests, right?  Not me, that's for sure. 

The truth is that I'll do all sorts of things in a room full of kids that I wouldn't do with adults.  So I tried the blessing at the end of class.  I was afraid that the kids would be a little creeped out by it, or resist being touched, or think it was silly.  I told them to line up, then I turned to the other teacher and blessed her.  So far, so good.  She started blessing at one end of the line and I started at the other. 

It was rather amazing.  All of the children stood quietly, watching us proceed down the line.  "________, child of God, may you carry the light of Christ within you this week."  Again and again I put my hands on a set of little shoulders and looked into an upturned face and repeated the blessing.  What faces!  Expectant and a little excited, each child beamed at the blessing that was their very own.  They stayed quiet.  They didn't poke each other. Instead, they smiled with big eyes and little shrugs. 

After a while, we didn't use the curriculum anymore and I stopped blessing the children.  We still had fun and learned things, but we never blessed anyone ever again.  I miss it.


May you be filled with the grace of the Living God who calls you .