Blessing
“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying: Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the Israelites: You shall say to them,
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.
So they shall put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”
—Numbers 6:22-27.
jeremy thomas . unsplash
This passage from Numbers is used frequently as a benediction in so many congregations. This morning, for some reason, I stop and really listen to the words. We are giving God human characteristics. Attributing human reactions and feelings to God, as you know, falls under a big word with rolling syllables: anthropomorphism. Sometimes this is our only way to express what we would like to say about God. It has its traps; but it can on occasion give us the tiniest glimpses of the magnitude of the love and care we receive from God.
How wonderful to pray that “God’s face” will be directed to us—and even more that God’s face will shine on us, and we will receive God’s grace. We are asking God to look directly at us—look us right in the eye and give us peace. We are indeed asking for a connection, a blessing—an ancient blessing that was bestowed on the Hebrews and now comes down to us many centuries later.
I love knowing that the early Hebrews were just people like us, asking for a blessing, a relationship; calling on God to look directly at them and to bring them peace.
What is the face of God? Is it the horizon, the stars, the oceans, the forests, the moon, all of space as far as we can see? Is it the Solar System, the planets Mars and Jupiter—or is it a multitude of solar systems and beyond? We have come full circle back to the word solar— which pertains to the sun, with a brightness that shines for us above all other bodies. Yet we know that the brightness of our sun pales in the face of the love of our God that shines on sunny as well as dark days and nights.
Joanna . joannaseibert.com