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Blessed
By daniel | May 16, 2004
Grace and peace to you,
Blessed. It?s one of those Old Testament words that lost so much in translation. At it?s most basic it means “happy;” but it has nuances and undertones much richer than anything the English language can capture.
Blessed. It?s ripe with present goodness, the fat of the land, and pregnant with potentiality, the promise of milk and honey to come. It is a statement of someone?s condition ? the condition of being on the receiving end of Someone Else?s compulsive generosity.
Last Sunday was Mothers? Day and I was thinking. It struck me that I have an excellent wife. Who can find a virtuous woman? Me. Even better, my excellent wife is a remarkable mother. Not just “takes care of the baby pretty well” mother, but the kind of mother that is training my daughter to love me. Almost every single day, no matter what kind of day Joy?s had, I?ll come through the door around five o?clock to, “Yaaay! Daddy?s home,” and I know I have a good life. My wife is a good mother, so I rise up this morning and call myself “blessed.”
This stuff might not strike you as particularly spiritual. Try to remember, though, that it?s God that made wives and babies, hearth and home, Saturdays and the fat of the land. You can?t be more spiritual than God; and you probably ought not try. You might strain something.
I think the psalmists really understood this. You don?t hear a whole lot of religious gymnastics going on in the Psalms. Rather, you hear a community receiving life ? bread and wine and rain and each other ? as gift, and then saying “thank you” lots of different ways. I dare you to read Psalm 104 slowly several times and not want to get up and dance. If you can you?re either illiterate or a little too stodgy. Herein you see a gigantic, terrifying God, riding the wind and attended to by servants so powerful they burst into flame, bending low to pay incredible attention to every link in the circle of created life (including us). “You open your hand, they are satisfied with good.”
Life is a gift. Life is gifts. If I enjoy those gifts in themselves I am a hedonist and an idolater. If I enjoy those gifts because they express the generosity of the Giver I am blessed, and I will “bless the LORD.” If I fail to enjoy the gifts I am a blind, deaf ingrate, cruising for discontentment and bitterness and nagging questions of why God doesn?t love me. Life?s gifts are His love notes. You can?t be more spiritual than God.
So count your blessings and you may find you are blessed; and you might even haul off and bless the LORD.
This is God?s will for your life. God?s intentions for you are wrapped up in the three strands of satisfaction: constant enjoyment, steady petition, and unbroken, articulated gratitude. “Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God?s will for you in Christ Jesus.” (I Thess.5:16-18)
Amen and bless the Lord.
Blessed,
Virgil
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