Blessing

Blessings are odd animals.  When a mentor blesses emerging maturity incredible things happen; great music, inspired art, and thought provoking writings.  It is as if the blessing comes with its own power.  One could imagine a world where the old nurture and bless the young, the experienced guide the inexperienced, and those with maturity shape the na?ve.  Idealistically this is the world where I want to live.  Yet most of the time we seem to be so far from this ideal.
 
The difference comes from the side of blessings we don’t often think about; negative.  Greed is its own mentor.  Exploiters are guides no matter how evil their path might be.  Abuse gives birth to future abusers.  
 
The trouble rests in the reality that you and I are blessed; but with what kind of blessing?  Are we with those who lift us up towards the values of true truth?  Do we seek companions who nurture and heal our hearts?  Are we seekers of good or evil?
 
The world we live in can be terribly unforgiving.  Even though evil has its own reward the process, for now, consumes us.  We are touched by evil in the midst of beauty.  We are shaped by greed even as we give.  We respond to indulgence and self while we thirst for community.
 
God’s blessing is intense.  “Doom to the land of flies and mosquitoes beyond the Ethiopian rivers, shipping emissaries all over the world, down rivers and across seas.  Go, swift messengers, go to this people tall and handsome, this people held in respect everywhere, this people  mighty and merciless, from the land crisscrossed with rivers.”  (Isaiah 18.1, 2)  I wonder if we realize what kind of blessing God has for you and for me.
 
God’s desire is for all, every member of our communities, to receive a blessing of mercy, compassion, and love.  We are blessed.  Remember; when we embrace self we receive self’s blessing as well.  The empowerment or drain which comes from good or evil changes our lives from the inside out.
 
Thank God for Divinity’s blessing.