“What is a blessing? A blessing is a circle of light drawn around a person to protect, heal, and strengthen. Life is a constant flow of emergence. The beauty of blessing is its belief that it can affect what unfolds… To bless also means to invoke divine favor upon.”
In his book, To Bless the Space Between Us, John O’Donahue explores what it means to bless, some of the traditions around blessing in the Church, what is happening — spiritually, relationally, & invisibly — when a blessing is given, and why all of us need to reimagine and rediscover the practice of blessing. He also describes blessing as, “a gracious invocation where the human heart pleads with the divine heart” and insists that it is “neither a sentiment nor a question.” At one point, O’Donahue is making a case for reviving, what he calls, the lost art of blessing one another, and why it is important for humans to participate in it. He says:
“This is why we reach for blessing. In our confusion, fear, and uncertainty we call upon the invisible structures of original kindness to come to our assistance and open pathways of possibility by refreshing and activating in us our invisible potential.”
I have seen that there is Mystery at work in the space between two people when a blessing is being given and received — a Divine co-signer who breathes on the words and makes them more than just consolations or requests. Blessing, it seems to me, is a supernatural process of recalling God’s original design, love, and intentions and then speaking them over someone or some thing with holy confidence in God, who is Love, to accomplish it.
Turning to O’Donahue again, he writes, “The language of blessing is invocation, a calling forth. This is why the word may occurs [within blessings]; it is a word of benediction. It imagines and wills the fulfillment of desire. In the evocation of our blessings here, the word may is the spring through which the Holy Spirit is invoked to surge into presence and effect. The Holy Spirit is the subtle presence and secret energy behind every blessing here.”
The Invisible Structures of Original Kindness
The Bible wastes no time introducing the concept of blessing — and with the clear implication that it is more than a warm sentiment, platitude, or wish. Throughout the creation narrative in Genesis 1, God’s declaration of goodness over each newly created thing becomes the refrain of the whole dance of creation. God spoke, it came into being, and God declares that it is good — rinse and repeat. With the creation of human(s) who bear God’s image (1:26-27), the blessing gets bigger and more specific. Genesis 1:28 reads: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.’” The first words of God to humankind are words of delight, blessing, and generosity. Author Danielle Shroyer calls this original blessing. She says, “Original blessing reminds us that God calls us good and beloved before we are anything else. Sin is not at the heart of our nature; blessing is. And that didn’t stop being true because Adam and Eve ate fruit in the garden. In fact, it has never stopped being true… In blessing, you receive your deepest identity: God has called you a beloved, blessed child of God. That is the core of who you are.”
The apocryphal book, the Wisdom of Solomon, puts it this way: “For God created all things so that they might exist; the generative forces of the world are wholesome…” (Wisdom 1:14 NRSV-CI)
God — and the blessing of God over all creation, and specifically humankind — is that wholesome generative force, that invisible structure of original kindness.
In the book of Genesis, God blesses everything from the birds and the fish (living beings but not human), to humankind (in general), to the Sabbath (days/times/events), to the Earth herself (object) after the flood, to Potiphar’s household (outside of the covenant with Israel), to Egypt as a whole (nations), to the individual Patriarchs and Matriarchs of Israel: Abram, Sarai, Hagar, Ishmael, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob, Leah, Rachel, Bilhah, Zilpah, Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh… to name a few.
An important shift happens as we read on, however, wherein blessings are given and received by humans, in God’s name, rather than being exclusively spoken by God to a person, place, or thing. One of the most notable instances of blessing occurs in Numbers 6:22-26. Here we find God’s instructions to Aaron and his sons, the priests of the people of Israel, for how to pronounce and proclaim a blessing on the people.
The Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron and his sons, ‘This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: ‘The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.’”
Regarding this passage, in her book Original Blessing, Danielle Shroyer writes, “This is a blessing, not a petition. We don’t have to convince God, because God has already decided to be a God of blessing, of grace, and of peace. Instead, this blessing calls us to remember the gifts of blessing God has for us, respond to them, and acknowledge what the gifts will do.”
One of my favorite parts of that passage is not the blessing itself, but verse 27 immediately following it, when God is explaining what is actually happening spiritually when that blessing is given. “So they will put My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.” To bless is to put God’s name on someone or something, to bind the blessing we speak to the very source and fountain of Original Kindness.
Throughout the rest of the Hebrew scriptures, as well as in the New Testament, blessing recurs in pivotal moments as a tentpole to remind God’s people of God’s original kindness still at work in the world. The prophets, priests, judges, and kings throughout the Old Testament regularly engage in the art and act of blessing individuals, tribes, and the people of Israel as a whole. In the gospels, we see, for example, Elizabeth blessing Mary and the baby in her womb; Jesus blessing everything from food to fig trees to little children to “all who believe”; Luke even recounts that Jesus is speaking a blessing over his disciples when he begins to ascend to heaven. Most of the epistles of Paul, Peter, and John either begin or end, or both, with a blessing in some form – often using the words “grace and peace”, and being in the name of Jesus. (The Priestly Blessing from Numbers 6 we looked at above includes grace and peace, in God’s name, which is likely where Paul adapted his greetings and salutations from.)
This is, in part, what it means to bear the image of God, to be created in God’s likeness. Image-bearers, empowered by and filled with the Holy Spirit, are invited to participate in the sacredness of blessing one another, in God’s name. God has been in the business of blessing since literal Day One, and has invited us into this holy exchange of words, faith, and mystery in order to put flesh and bone on the invisible structures of that Original Kindness — which created, blessed, and bound Godself to us as beloved children.
👏👏👏