The Blessing
The concept and practice of blessing someone is as old as the Garden of Eden. God blessed Adam and Eve as soon as they were created, telling them to be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it. Blessing confers upon the one being blessed a special status, that they are receiving something wonderful and valuable from the one who confers the blessing. God continued to bless His people throughout their history, although in many cases they spurned this gift and treated it as nothing valuable.
The privilege of parents to bless their children is something that came alive for us when our children were young. My husband began to bless them nightly as we put them to bed. He even called and blessed them over the phone when he had to be out of town! The words spoken were those of Aaron in Numbers 6:24-26. “Now may the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace.” Those words are simple yet profound, and all of our children could recite them verbatim, I am sure! We even shared a special moment before our youngest daughter’s wedding. The “original 5” gathered as we had for so many years, and my husband blessed them all once more. Now that we’re grandparents, we speak these words over our grandchildren at every opportunity. It’s not a good luck charm or anything like that, but what better things can you confer upon those you love most than that the Lord will bless and keep them, be gracious to them, give them peace?
In 2021, my 90-year-old mother suffered a major medical event and her days on earth were coming to an end. I was able to travel to spend some of those last days with her, reading her Bible to her as I know she wanted to spend those last hours. She was ready to go to heaven, and one of the last passages I read to her was the Numbers blessing. I played a song for her then called “The Blessing”, with those words set to music. The song also contained words from Deuteronomy, which say “May His blessing be upon you for a thousand generations, to your family and your children and their children, and their children…” My parents were faithful to teach their children the truths of Scripture, that following and obeying God’s Word would bring blessing to a thousand generations of their descendants. I reminded Mom that she and Dad had been faithful to teach us the Word of God, and that because of their faithfulness, her descendants would continue to be blessed. Those were some of the last words I spoke to her, and a few hours later she saw Jesus face to face. As we looked through her plans for her funeral-she was very efficient and told us exactly how she wanted things!-we found that the final words she wanted to leave her family at her graveside were those of Numbers 6:24-26. My husband read those words to us, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, as her last blessing to us.
We may not be able to leave our children and grandchildren great earthly riches, but those are all going to disappear someday anyway. Teaching our families the Word of God is the MOST important thing we can do for them, and speaking blessing over them at every opportunity is a legacy that will last for eternity. Reminding them that they are loved and valued by us and, most importantly, by the God Who created them, is a privilege and honor.
Faith Through the Journey 