Although we often equate blessings with God’s benevolence, thinking they constitute a sign of God’s favor in the form of prosperity and abundance, they often work in ways quite contrary to such a notion. I have come to see with greater and greater clarity that a blessing is at its most potent in times of disaster, devastation, and loss. When God’s providence seems most difficult to find, a blessing helps us perceive the grace that threads through our lives.
A blessing does not explain away our loss or justify devastation. It does not make light of grief or provide a simple fix for the rending. It does not compel us to “move on.” Instead, a blessing meets us in the place of our deepest loss. In that place, it offers us a glimpse of wholeness and claims that wholeness here and now. A blessing helps us to keep breathing – to abide in this moment, and the next moment, and the one after that.
From The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief
by Jan Richardson, Wanton Gospeller Press, 2020
from Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons
by Jan Richardson (2015)
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