The First and Second Blessing

We never can get it all in one reading.  Of this I am convinced when it comes to reading the Sacred Word.  Maybe others get it the first time, but this reader is often slow when it comes to seeing what other folks see at first glance.  I wonder how many times I have read the Genesis account of creation.  Ten, maybe twenty, or maybe a hundred.  With the advent of this new year, I started reading it again and, as always, I am amazed at what I wonder if I ever saw before. 

 

For example, within that first account of creation contained in the first chapter, there is a record of the first and second blessing given by God.  In verse 22 after the creation of the winged creatures and the creatures of the sea, the Word says, "God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase....' "  Here is the first blessing.  Then after creating male and female in His own image, we hear God saying in verse 28, "God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase...' "  And, so we read the second blessing.  Many, many blessings would follow, but those were the first two times when God looked our way and gave a blessing.

 

To be blessed by God is indeed a wonderful thing.  So often these days we hear strangers saying to us, "Have a blessed day," but it comes and goes so quickly without any real sense of feeling. When God blesses, it has far more meaning.  His blessings come to us with purpose.  When God speaks blessings over us, it is not done in some trivial manner, but it carries with it a power that cannot be altered.  Divine blessings come to us, not because we are worthy of them, but because God is a compassionate and caring heavenly Father who desires good things for us and actively works to see them accomplished.