“Grandpa, can you bless yourself?”

There I was, walking home with my 10-year-old grandson Will with he and his dad. You know, just a casual stroll along the tree-lined path between Will’s school and their home. We sauntered along, idly commenting on such quotidian topics as the weather, the events of the day, and the Chiefs chances of a Super Bowl 3-peat. 

When all at once, out of the clear blue sky came this mind-blowing, game-changer of a question from Will. 

My first thought was, “He can’t really mean what I think he means, can he?” And so, eager to dodge the weightier implications of Will’s query, I responded by saying, “Well, usually when a person sneezes, it is better if someone else says, ‘bless you.’” Then,  to cover my bases I quickly added, “But I suppose the person could say something like, ‘Bless me.’”

I could tell by the conflicted look on grandson’s face that he was NOT talking about sneezing etiquette. 

Perhaps without realizing it completely, Will had casually posed a deep, probing theological question. It was a question that went straight to the heart of the great FAITH vs. WORKS dialogue. With a bit more expansive vocabulary and a few hours spent in the pages of Bultmann or Neibuhr he might have phrased his question thusly; “Grandpa, can human beings provide the means of grace for their own lives, or must they completely rely on God’s initiative?”

Will’s question was a genuine head-scratcher. After returning home thoroughly dissatisfied with my answer, it made me stop and think. It made me take a look at all the things I call “blessings” in my life, and then try to figure out the true source of each. Had I “blessed myself” at all? Or did 100% of those blessings derive from a divine point of origin?

As I ticked down that list of blessings, a theme seemed to emerge and solidify before finally coming to stand upright on its own two legs.

That theme (to the great surprise of absolutely NO ONE) was: maybe it is BOTH! 

Let me give you an example; God blessed me with a plain, unvarnished MIRACLE of a body. Incidentally, God gave you the same blessing. Considering the body’s innate ability to heal itself, protect itself from infection, grow, multiply, regulate its internal temperature, and sustain itself in a wide variety of conditions this blessing is nothing short of miraculous. 

And yes, it comes completely and directly from the hand of God.

But don’t I have a little something to say here about the ongoing maintenance of this miracle? For example, it is completely on me to decide how often (and with what) to feed this Miracle Machine. I and I alone am responsible for regulating its condition and well-being, aren’t I? I could choose to ignore and abuse this amazing gift. Or I could choose to take its stewardship seriously. 

I count my family of origin, my birthplace, my birth era, my (relatively intact) mind, my spiritual upbringing, my gorgeous and heaven-sent spouse, and my totally miraculous children and grandchildren as some of the other extraordinary blessings in my life. NONE of which I had anything to do with. [Check that… I guess I had something to do with those children.]

I am blessed by the extraordinary gift of God’s unconditional love and by the sacrificial love of Christ who died to give me – and YOU! – new life. God has also blessed us with the gift of free will… the free will to receive this gift of new life or reject it. 

And so, after a lot of careful consideration, Will, I think my answer to your question will have to be, “No. We really can’t bless ourselves. We can, however, apply ourselves to COUNTING those blessings and responsibly STEWARDING those blessings throughout our lives. But ultimately any blessing worthy of the name comes from ONE SOURCE. They come from your Father in Heaven.”

Unless, of course, we are talking about responding to a sneeze. 

ACHOO!

Abundant blessings to YOU;