The approach of significant events (birthdays, anniversaries) makes one reflective, contemplative.
As I approach (at fright train speed) such a significant life event, I have been pondering not just my years lived, with all the accompanying successes and failures, but also where I hope to go from here.
I recently read the words of Solomon’s Benediction (1 Kings 8:54-66), and found great inspiration in his blessing of Israel.
54 Now as Solomon finished offering all this prayer and plea to the Lord, he arose from before the altar of the Lord, where he had knelt with hands outstretched toward heaven. 55 And he stood and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, 56 “Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. Not one word has failed of all his good promise, which he spoke by Moses his servant. 57 The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. May he not leave us or forsake us, 58 that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways and to keep his commandments, his statutes, and his rules, which he commanded our fathers. 59 Let these words of mine, with which I have pleaded before the Lord, be near to the Lord our God day and night, and may he maintain the cause of his servant and the cause of his people (Israel), as each day requires, 60 that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other. 61 Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments, as at this day.”
Solomon’s blessing made me think about blessings, beyond the sometimes pithy #blessed. As one looks at a life lived, in process and to come it is truly impossible to respond with anything other than,
I have been blessed
I am blessed
I know I will be blessed
This is our life’s calling … yesterday, today and tomorrow.
This prayer, written in or before 1506, by hands not known, is the spirit of my prayer today:
itsawonderfilledlife 