Skip to main content

The Blessing

Over the past couple years I've had the privilege to be blessed and I don't mean in just the blessings of day to day life (though that is also true) but more specifically I'm referring to the blessing the pastor will declare at the end of the church service. When I was little didn't take much notice of it until I started thinking about the words. Now different pastors use different blessings but they usually involve God being gracious and granting peace. And these blessings unite us as believers more than you might think.

When I lived in Toronto I was blessed in Punjabi almost every Lord's Day. This first made me think of the amazingness of our God, that He not only understands other languages but also created them. You see, God is not the God who blesses only those who speak English and He will bless you even by using languages you don't understand. In the past six weeks I have been blessed in French, German, Italian, and English. It reminds me that my home church is not the only church there is. I have brothers and sisters who are being blessed in Russian, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Portuguese, Korean, Norwegian, and Swedish  (not to mention all the languages I can't remember at this moment in time).

Next Sunday, when you are blessed, think about your brothers and sisters in other countries and pray for them. We may not understand each other but we understand that our God blesses us and one day we will be blessed eternally in heaven. Cool eh?

*interesting side note, if you live in North America you are actually among the last of God's children to be blessed because of the time changes.

Comments

  1. hmmm, very interesting reminder. :D Thank you for that. I look forward to thinking about that when I hear the blessing next Sunday.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Body Image (1)

Contentedly situated in lawn chairs with our toes in the sand and the baby playing on a blanket at our feet, my friend and I watch her girls digging holes or running between the beach and the lake. Periodically, the girls run up to us to display the shells and rocks they've found. At one point, as the girls surround us, one of us adults comments on the baby being chubby (which she is, as a baby should be) after which one of the girls looks at me and says, "you're kind of chubby." She wasn't trying to be rude or smart, she was just being bluntly observant as children are. As I looked at I her and considered an answer, I thought of the baggage of body image that women have carried for generations, and I thought, I don't want her to carry this baggage too. I want better for her.   I replied, "you know, being a little chubby is actually a good thing. Our bodies function better and it helps keep us warm." This deep lesson was probably lost on her as she s...

Personal Pragmatism

 Pragmatism is the philosophy that believes things have value based on their effectiveness; the idea that if something works it is right. Usefulness is most important. And this philosophy is thriving in our culture today, partly because it is so sneaky. Of course we want to use systems that are effective and produce good results, but the danger lies in only valuing something or someone for what they can do. For example, certain people are not very useful, therefore it is okay to remove them from society; or taking care of one's home does not bring in money, therefore it is not as valuable as work that does produce money.  John Snyder says that "in religion, pragmatism values God; but it values Him because He is the most useful of all beings. He can empower us to accomplish our goals--world evangelism, healthy families, personal fulfillment, moral excellence--whatever they are. A useful God is the pragmatist's great desire. Though hard to spot at times, the shift from worsh...

What Is Your Purpose?

 A couple weeks ago, a young woman asked me, "what is your purpose?" it kind of threw me off. Ok, it really threw me off. It seemed a bit touché to say "to glorify God and enjoy Him forever" when she was looking for specifics. And I get why she's asking. My life does seem pretty random. Thirty-two years old, working on my BA, teaching music part time, working at a coffee shop part time, and living at least an hour from my closest family member. On paper it looks...well...it looks random. I get it. Kind of hard to pull a purpose out of the randomness.  I was talking to the Lord about it because sometimes, even for myself, the person living this life, it's hard to find a specific purpose in the randomness. Sometimes I wonder,  when I get to Heaven if I'm  going to have anything to offer God, if while other people show up with their kids, I'm going to hold out empty hands and say "it's just me." I mean, if He wants soldiers to defeat spiri...