When
our children were young we’d tuck them in at bedtime, read them a Bible story,
and say a prayer we had improvised for them: “God bless Sarah, and keep her
safe and well and happy.” And “God bless Matthew and keep him safe and well and
happy.”
At
the time, I now realize, I gave little thought to what lay behind our simple
“God bless” prayers. . . .
That’s
from the introduction to my new book, The God Who Blesses, fifty
reflections intended to answer the broader question, “What exactly do we mean by
bless?” One could say that every non-fiction book project arises from a
question the writer wants answered. Until now, though, I‘ve never had a single
word inspire any of my books. But bless, along with its cognates of blessing
and blessedness, became a thought-trigger that prompted me to explore a
concept that is paradoxically
familiar yet also little understood. Surprisingly little is
written about bless and blessing; I found only scholarly material
on the topic and as a result I wanted to write something accessible to
non-theologians like myself.
Bless has
a wide range of meanings. It’s most often used in the sense of wishing people
well, as for example with the blessing of dismissal at the end of a church
service. The word also serves as a “thank you.” Elsewhere, we read in the
Psalms, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” revealing that the word can also mean
“praise.” And we’re all familiar with the casual uses of the word, as in saying
“Bless my heart!” or “Bless you” after someone sneezes.
Sound
interesting? If so, let me invite you to look at The God Who Blesses, which
probes the ins and
outs of
a single word that I found worthy of exploration.
[300 words]
PS: As those of you
getting reminders about new blog postings already know, the publisher has as a
promotion made the book available as a free Kindle download from Amazon, until
August 31. Here’s the link” https://www.amazon.com/d/B0BBRNC642/
And you’d be doing me
a great favor if you’d forward this link to friends and family whom you think
might enjoy The God Who Blesses.
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