Blessed to Be a Blessing

“Now the Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.’” (Genesis 12).

We too are blessed, when we cross ourselves or when we are blessed at the end of services on Sundays. But we are also blessed as children of God through our baptisms and through the life and death of Jesus. In the sermon this past Sunday I read the Hebrew blessing for healing called the Mi Shebeirach:

“May the one who blessed our ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, bless and heal those who are ill [names]. May the Blessed Holy One be filled with compassion for their health to be restored and their strength to be revived. May God swiftly send them a complete renewal of body and spirit, and let us say, Amen.”

As we continue to talk about the peace of Christ being with us - perhaps we can restore this ancient tradition of blessing one another. How can we bless each other? We could use the words from Numbers “may the Lord bless you and keep you…” or other words from scripture or from our hearts. We can be blessings through our presence as God’s children.

We can visit (safely), call or text those who need to know they are blessed. We can speak a kind word or reach out to each other. We can remind others by the way in which we treat them that they are blessed by God. As we look forward to Thanksgiving and Advent I encourage you to bless each other and to remember that you too are a blessing.

May God bless you to be a blessing.

Pr. Jason