Devotionals Detail

Numbers 6:24-26

"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."

The three lines of blessing from these verses in Numbers 6 are very familiar to me. Growing up in a United Methodist youth group, these lines were taught to me as the United Methodist Youth Benediction. We would say these words at the end of every youth group gathering. We would circle together and hold hands and say this out loud. Inevitably, we would be looking at one another while we were in the circle. Because we were teenagers, there were times we said them in a silly way; there were times we said the words as fast as we could. There were other times we would do more than simply look at one another and actually look into each other's eyes as we said these words of blessing to each other.

Through the simple weekly repetition, I knew our church as a space of blessing and favor towards me. Of course, we also had other expressions of this blessing in the form of caring adults who loved on us each week and other expressions of love, such as the food available for teenagers at our weekly snack supper. We say these words of blessing at the end of our youth group time here at Flower Mound UMC. I think they hold power and purpose no matter how much a youth might be paying attention. God's blessing does not wait for our permission to begin work.

At our church, we use the word BLESSED among other value words of BELONG, BELOVED, and BRAVE. We say that consistent presence and practice create BLESSED faith-filled living. Blessing is how God's Spirit equips us to understand our own giftedness. Through our individual and collective actions, we share blessing with others to fulfill God's purpose in our lives. We recognize the blessing we receive from God and in turn pass that blessing on to others. There is equal gifting from God in the giving as there is in the receiving.

This Sunday we are blessing backpacks as we prepare for the start of school. While it might easily feel like a segmented age-level event in our church, I believe God calls the whole church to this blessing. Whether we have no kids, currently have kids, or now have kids who have kids, we share in the blessing from God that we bestow upon the children in our church and community. We have a chance to look our kids in the eyes and pray God's love and light shine upon them as they enter a new school year. I cannot think of a greater joy and responsibility for us as God's family together.