“May the love of God, and the grace of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.”
I remember as a child hearing those words of blessing roll out over the congregation in Rev. Van’s full-throated bass voice. Even as a kid, I had a deep sense of awe and peace when I heard the blessing spoken.
As a pastor, I take great joy in offering God’s blessing to his people. At the end of the worship service I get to raise my arms and say, “Receive God’s blessing.”
My custom when offering the blessing in my church community is to raise my arms, bow my head, and wait patiently until everyone is completely quiet. Because the children are in the service it can be quite raucous, so sometimes I wait quite awhile while parents shush their children and try to bring some order to the chaos. Eventually, when all is silent, I recite those wonderful words of blessing to the gathered ones who stand with open arms and hands to receive them. When I have finished with the words “… be with you all!” the people adjust their arms and call out, “And also with you!” It’s the richest of moments.
There have been some wonderful moments surrounding the blessing, such as when the 3-year-old daughter of my co-pastor came and stood beside me and raised her arms in blessing along with me. Another sweet moment was when I got a text from a parent that showed a picture of her baby asleep in a carrier with his hands open as if receiving the blessing. It was amazingly cute.
One day I went to Costco to replenish supplies and had stopped at the food court for the obligatory $1.50 hotdog and soda. I was enjoying people-watching as I lingered over the hot dog. I spied a mother and her two little boys pushing a loaded cart toward the exit. I immediately recognized them as fairly recent members of our church. One of the boys saw me, broke into a huge smile, and waved. He then started tugging frantically on his mother’s dress. “Mom! Mom! It’s …” Clearly, he couldn’t remember my name. “It’s …” He stopped and frowned for a moment, then suddenly lowered his head, thrust his arms high in the air as if calling down a blessing, and shouted, “It’s him!”
Mom and I laughed at the sheer delight he took in making the connection. “Well, that’s a great thing to be known for,” she said. “It must be fun to be known as the guy who does the blessing.”
It is.
About the Author
Rod Hugen is a retired co-founder of the Village Church in Tucson, Ariz., and disciples and mentors young pastors and leaders on behalf of Classis Arizona. He is author of Parallels: a Lenten Devotional.