GOD bless you family, enemy, neighbour and friend! Sprinkled and soaked in summer rains, a wee Irish blessing for you:
“May the blessing of the rain be on you - the soft sweet rain.
"May it fall upon your soul so that all the little flowers spring up and shed their sweetness on the air. May the blessing of the great rains be on you, may they beat upon your spirit and wash it fair and clean, and leave there many a shining pool where the blue of heaven shines, and sometimes a star.”
We love to be blessed. We were made for blessing. We need to be blessed. We need to humbly and gratefully receive blessing. Stop and take time with me to count your blessings; even in pools of trial and suffering, careful and determined panning will uncover gold, all too easily ignored or missed.
And we were made to bless. We need to channel blessing. We feel more human, more connected to God, our own soul and other people, and more ‘alive’ when we manage to share the iceberg melting, beaming smile of God.
I’ve been meditating on The Blessing channelled to God’s People in Numbers 6, a blessing for all open to God’s Love in Christ.
“God spoke to Moses: “Tell Aaron and his sons, This is how you are to bless the People of Israel. Say to them, God bless you and keep you, God smile on you and gift you, God look you full in the face and make you prosper. In so doing, they will place my name on the People of Israel— I will confirm it by blessing them.” (MSG)
“SHALOM!” is now how Jews today share God’s Soulful Peace, as they greet one another, but it can easily become no more than the ‘moo of a coo’, a fleeting greeting. The Aaronic blessing above seeks God’s protection, pardon and peace for people we meet and rub shoulders with.
Having heard loud and clear God’s ‘YES, I’m for you!’ in Christ, experienced God’s amazing Grace and forgiveness, and glimpsed Almighty God’s beaming smile, I realise what a vital responsibility we have to counter and erase the distorted views of God as a divine policeman, kill-joy ogre with a sharp stick, inept white-bearded grand daddy in the sky, etc.
What a blessed responsibility to overturn the frowns and allow the infectious, glowing, open, full-in-the-face smile of God to melt the ice and snow of a world bewitched by the author of lies.
God’s shining Shalom and continued blessings in, to and through you my friends! See how infectious a smile can be.
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