Monday, September 04, 2006

Shining Faces



I suppose it's not the sort of thing that one lies awake at night wondering about. But it seems if you go to church regularly, at some point you will likely feature in a sermon as an illustration of some point or another.

Ellie had her shining moment yesterday evening when David Day was preaching on Psalm 67, which rejoices in God's blessing. He was looking for a way to describe what it means to be blessed by God.

One of the ways the Bible describes it is that God's face shines upon the people he blesses. When our family goes up for communion, we always bring Ellie with us to receive a blessing from the pastor. And when David places his hand on her head and repeats the ancient words, she invariably smiles at him with her smile that makes everyone smile back.

That's it! That's the way God must smile at us when he blesses us. If the divine favor is anything like Ellie's face when it lights up, we are blessed indeed.

The Lord bless you
and keep you.
The Lord make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you
and give you peace.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ummm....i think i might be slow on this one but can someone tell me what it says on the top.

3:39 AM  
Blogger Rob Barrett said...

Sorry for the confusion -- each of the texts at the top and bottom is of the Aaronic blessing in Numbers 6:24-26. The one at the top is the original Hebrew and the one at the bottom is (mostly) the New Revised Standard Version.

9:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Wow thats pretty sweet. Thanks so much.

1:23 AM  

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