I first read the Bible from cover to cover in my 20’s. Genesis came easy, Exodus was interesting enough, but then came the book of Numbers. I was “numbering” the days until I was through the beast. I think it took me several starts, stops and restarts over the period of 5 years to finally make it through. The first five chapters of Numbers consist of a census, rules about roles in the Israelite camp, and procedures for the stoning of adulteresses (loads of fun). So, when I finally reached the end of Numbers 6 (the Aaronic blessing, named for the first high priest and Moses’ brother, Aaron), I was so excited. Here was something worth reading!
The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them,
The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” Numbers 6: 22-27
At that time, our oldest had been born, and I began integrating this blessing into his bedtime routine. Almost every night since he was young, he and his younger brother, and now their step-siblings when they are with us, hear these words spoken over them.
Not About Us
As we break this reading from Numbers down, notice who is doing the action in this blessing. The humans (priests) have only one task: to speak the blessing/put “God’s name” on the people. God does all the rest: the blessing, the keeping, the smiling, the looking, and the granting of peace. Though this blessing is about God’s action rather than our own, this doesn’t mean that the human role is to be overlooked.
Giving and Receiving the Blessing
Having these words spoken over you, by a priest, parent or friend is life-changing. In order to be recipients of God’s action in our lives, we need to know that we belong to him. We need to have that blessing spoken over us–not so that God will be good to us, because no good parent waits for someone else to ask them to love their child–they just love them. However, just as a child can better take in a parents love if they know how their parents feel about them, we need to know of God’s love so that our hearts can fully open up and receive it.
If you have never had those words spoken over you, I encourage you to give yourself that gift right now (song version of the Aaronic Blessing.
Liminal Space–Our Hearts Beating In Sync with God’s
Knowing that God loves us is one thing, living in that love is another and requires more deeply understanding the actions of God that are a part of the blessing. How do we take in the truth inherent in this blessing? In addition to allowing the words to be spoken (or sung) over us, we also need to cultivate a mind and heart space that is open to allowing our identity as children of God to shape us, to allowing the Holy Spirit to work in and through us.
There is almost always a significant amount on our minds–obligations, goals, worries, perhaps a list of “to-dos”. And, with every leap of our mind into the future, there is an equally strong draw to the past–regrets, accomplishments, moments we wish we had played out differently or those priceless moments we don’t want to forget. Then there’s the now–that liminal space between the past and the future that rests right on the edge between what was and what could be. And, interestingly enough, that liminal “now” space of never-ending becoming is where God is. It is the only place He ever is–in the now.
When we chose to rest in that now space, we let go of mentation and switch to meditation, a broadening of awareness that more nearly touches the heart of God and our true identity in Him.
When we let go of the goals, the lists, and the rehashing and release the mind from its spinning, we enter the heart-space and can feel the heart of God beating in sync with our own.
God’s Name
This is where that passage from Numbers can serve as an anchor point, a reminder of how strongly our Father’s heart longs to beat in time with our own.
In Numbers 6:23, the Lord calls Aaron and the other priests to bless the people, to, as is reiterated in verse 27, put God’s name on them.
When you take someone’s name, as in the case of marriage or adoption, you are entering into that family. When we have God’s name put upon us, we are reminded that we have always been, and will always be, a beloved of the Father.
Blessing and Keeping
Oh how good it is to be a child of God! The blessing reminds us that God blesses and keeps us. Blessing is the provision of all that we could every need, both earthly and spiritually. If we know who we are in God and our relationship with Him, we can look to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. We can trust in our creator and sustainer to provide in every way for us. When we are in touch with who we are in God, we feel no lack in any way. We are complete.
Just like an adopted child trusts in his or her new parents to provide for their needs, when we take on God’s name, we can trust our heavenly Father to take care of our needs. That might not happen in the way we expect, or even in the way that our toddler heart wants or thinks it needs. However, when you step into the business of trusting God without reservation, you begin seeing the ways God provides more than we could ever ask for or imagine. Plus, trusting God moves us out of the mental gymnastics of contingency planning and into that now space.
There it is again–our hearts beating in sync with God’s.
God’s Face Shining On You
The next image from the blessing, and also the next “action” of God, is the Lord’s face shining upon us. This image is echoed a verse later with “lift up his countenance upon you.” A good number of us have, at some point in our lives, deeply loved a young child. When my boys were little, they were extremely physically active and their emotions rose and fell like waves on a stormy sea. I’d lose my temper multiple times throughout any given day, if not outwardly, then at least inwardly. Multiple times I’d count the hours till their bedtime.
Then, mere minutes after tucking them in, I’d sneak back into their rooms to check to see if they were asleep. As I watched the gentle rise and fall of their backs and listened to their gentle breathing, my heart would be filled to overflowing. In those moments, I couldn’t reconcile my earlier impatience and frustration with the unconditional love I felt for these perfect, tiny humans.
This is what it means to have God’s face shining on you. God, unlike us, can see through to the heart of who we are, even in the midst of our greatest flub-ups, and he just adores us.
Gracious to Us
With that kind of all-encompassing love, it is no wonder that God would, as verse 25 tells us, be gracious to us, treating us as the children of His that we are, and not as our ego-based actions would warrant. We are always welcome to bask in the light of His love for us. As the parable of the prodigal son reminds us, He is running for us, just waiting for us to fall into His open arms.
I was challenged once to imagine God singing of His love for me and over me. The particular song used in this exercise was Brandon Lake’s “Just Like Heaven”. Though the song was intended to be a song from us to God, the exercise is to flip the script to get just a taste of how what it feels like to have God smiling on you. I encourage you to click on the link, close your eyes, and imagine God singing these verses over you.
This exercise is not meant to make you big in your britches but rather to remind you that you are worthy of love and care. and that God yearns to spend time with you. Now that your heart has opened just a little more by reminding yourself of how much God loves to be in YOUR presence, play that song one more time, and sing the song from your heart back to God. Knowing how much He loves you, isn’t it just like heaven to be with Him?
Rest in Him
The final segment of the blessing in verse 26 is the granting of peace. If we are resting in God’s love and trusting in His keeping of us, peace is the natural result. Peace is found in relationship with God, in the now moment.
Of course, this sounds simple enough–just stop worrying and trust, rest in God’s love. It even feels doable as you sit here reading this post. But no sooner do we get up from our devices that one thousand and one thoughts bombard our minds and pull our hearts so that we are immediately out-of-sync with our Father. Even when there is no perceived crisis, our minds will grasp for something and make it into a problem, just to give itself something to get spun up about.
3 Tricks to Being Present to God, Here and Now
Since it is much easier to briefly spend time in God’s presence but much more difficult to stay there, here are three methods for staying present to God that I will be using to help cultivate my own increased level of presence over the coming months. Hopefully you find these helpful in your life as well.
#1 No moment is more important than this one
Remember that there is never a moment more important than this one. This present moment is all you ever have, and it’s the only place God is.
#2 Imagine God Smiling on You…And on Those Getting Under Your Skin
Imagine God smiling on you (listen to that Brandon Lake song or similar songs and flip the script if you’d like!), and, if anyone, by chance, happens to bother you, imagine God looking adoringly on them as well. Yes, they too are that loved. And it’s only when we extend the love of God outwards that we can fully receive God’s peace.
When we are baptized as Christians, we are baptized as priest, prophet and king. We, like Aaron in the book of Numbers, are priests who are tasked by God to remind others that they too have God’s name on them. What better way to do this than to feel that overpowering love for them in our hearts, to be the hands and feet of God in their lives? We don’t bless them by trying to be God to them. That’s just folly and very vain. Instead, we simply surrender and allow the love of God to shine through us. We (our ego selves) get out of the way and let God do all the action. Like Aaron, we are asked to be mere vehicles of God’s blessing.
So, suggestion #2 for staying in God’s presence is to know how much you are loved, and remember that we are all one in Christ. We are all God’s children. Let God’s love pour through you and out of you to bless others.
#3 All is Well
Finally, when you are tempted to worry (worry always pulls us out of presence into the future), repeat this to yourself:
There is nothing I need do right now
Nothing to fear
Nothing to resist
All is well
All will be well, and all,
Even that which feels difficult
Will work out for the good of everyone involved.
-(Words given to me by the Holy Spirit during a recent crisis)
There is nothing our ego-selves need to do. We need only get out of the way and allow God to work through us.
God is holding us, God is working through us, and all things work out for the those who love Him.
And just like that, we are back in presence, our hearts beating in time with God’s once more. We remember who we are and we rest in that, filling ourselves with love so that we can be bearers of that love to others.
Oh, how good it is to be a child of God!