In our modern culture, we have lost sight of the power we have to bless others. The story of Jacob and Esau explains part of the power of blessing. If we read the story of Balaam in Numbers 22, we see the importance of blessings. God intervened so that his prophet only spoke blessings to Israel.
“God bless you,” we say on a hot day when a friend hands us a glass of cold water. When we ask God to shower his goodness on our friend, do we really believe in the power of that blessing?
And what is a blessing but a prayer to the Lord to give good things to the one who blessed? Therefore, do not give blessings lightly. We will be judged for every word we speak. But give blessings on purpose.
Knowing the power of blessing when we bless others, whose blessings do we seek when we seek the good graces of the Lord? We have problems, we have diseases, we feel like it. We know that we need the good favor of the Lord. Where we go?
Too often we go to the “professional”. The reverend, priest, or some other paid saint. But is his blessing better than the one you receive from your wife? Are the professionals so much closer to the Father that we will seek them out and call upon them when Satan strikes us?
Instead, I learned to seek other sources of blessings. Against my will, I got an assignment from Mark, one of our search and rescue medics. He was returning to the states to take a job as a lab technician so he could be with his lovely pregnant wife for a couple of years before returning to the private military contractor business.
Mark took me to a corner of Bogotá and introduced me to an old beggar. The old man was about five feet tall and his right leg was missing just below the hip. He was once a soldier who lost a leg at the start of Colombia’s civil war in the 1950s.
Mark called him “Abuelito” (little grandfather) and told me that now it was my responsibility to visit Abuelito when I rotated in the country and before I rotated abroad. For the next two years, the money I gave my grandfather was never that much, but every time I saw it, it blessed me.
One night I came to the corner of the street and Abuelito was not there. I asked the woman who was always selling gum and candy from a sidewalk stall if she had seen the old man.
“He got sick and died,” he said. “But he always talked about you, and how you were the angel that God sent him in answer to his prayers.”
A few months later, another man recruited me, this time in Texas. He was moving and wanted to hire someone to take over his job of visiting widows in a small nursing home on Sunday afternoons. Excuse me. I resisted. But he insisted. So I went.
These widows, one who is 104 years old, bless me every Sunday afternoon when I’m home on vacation. Some can barely hear their “God bless you”, and I have to lower my ear to two inches from their mouths. But I am the one who receives the blessing.
I was blessed to have two men pushing me toward those whom God loves. And I received even greater blessings from the beggar and the widows.
The next time you need God’s blessings, turn to the people whom God listens to. We know from scripture that widows are some of God’s favorite people. The poor God has in his hand. Do good to God’s favorites and receive the fullness of his blessings.
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, who is no respecter of persons or takes bribes. He defends the cause of the orphans and the widow, and loves the stranger who resides among you, giving you food and clothing.
Duet: 10: 17-18
Those who give to the poor will lack nothing, but those who close their eyes receive many curses.
Proverbs 28:27
