God Bless You

Frederick Buechner says,

The word blessing has come to mean more often than not a pious formality such as ministers are continually being roped into giving at dinner parties. But in the biblical sense, if you give me your blessing, you irreversibly convey into my life not just something of the beneficent power and vitality of who you are but something also of the life-giving power of God in whose name the blessing is given.

Yet the word blessing still falls deaf on most ears. It carries little to no depth or meaning.

I would argue “luck,” of all words, hits closer to home because when you have “luck” you really have something. Everybody knows about the magical nature of luck. It wins ballgames, escapes hard times, and jumps from one person to the next. A blessing, on the other hand, has come to sound like a Hallmark imitation.

But what if your luck was God actually blessing you?

I think of, in this instance, Ruth – a Gentile, Moabite woman whose Israelite husband died. A nobody. A meaningless person. I mean God doesn’t sign a covenant with Ruth or the Moabites. Ruth doesn’t save the planet from disease or rescue a baby from a burning building. She doesn’t, for any reason, merit being in the lineage of Jesus Christ. But “luckily” she is. She’s actually the great-grandmother of King David.

But how? She’s a Moabite. An outsider. For no reason whatsoever should God care about this person. She’s done nothing. She has nothing. She’s useless.

But that’s what God does -- isn't it? God takes the lowly, undeserving many and makes them holy.

This is called grace. And grace, well, that’s a blessing.