As you get settled in to wherever you're sitting or laying down I encourage you to roll your shoulders up,
Back and down with the rhythm of your inhale and exhale.
Inhaling as your shoulders go up,
Holding as your shoulders go back,
Exhaling as your shoulders go down.
Continuing this for a few breaths,
Noticing and releasing tension that you might be holding in your upper back,
Your neck,
Jaw,
Forehead.
As you continue those nice deep breaths,
Lengthening your inhale and your exhale,
You can notice any tension you might be feeling in your gut,
Your abdomen.
Releasing that with deep,
Heavy sighs.
If there's anything else that would help you feel grounded in this space,
You can take a moment to get situated.
Continuing those nice deep breaths,
Really slowing down,
Shifting into the space for just a few minutes before you pick back into the rest of your day.
We're going to spend a little bit of time with a couple of verses from Numbers.
This is certainly not a book of the Bible that we run to first,
It's one of the least read books of the Bible.
But in this book,
We do have some very well-known verses that are often known as Aaron's Priestly Blessing.
As I read from Number 6,
I encourage you to simply let these words wash over you and wash over every depth of your soul.
There's nothing that you need to do,
You don't need to force yourself or force any part of you to receive these words in a certain way.
My hope and my prayer is that God would minister to the depths of us using these words in whatever way we most need,
Knowing and trusting that he knows what that is.
Continuing some nice deep breaths,
You can simply listen.
I'm going to read this three times in a row.
May the Lord bless you and guard you.
May the Lord light up his face to you and grant grace to you.
May the Lord lift up his face to you and give you peace.
Taking a nice big inhale and exhale,
I'll read this again.
May the Lord bless you and guard you.
May the Lord light up his face to you and grant grace to you.
May the Lord lift up his face to you and give you peace.
A nice deep inhale and exhale one more time.
May the Lord bless you and guard you.
May the Lord light up his face to you and grant grace to you.
May the Lord lift up his face to you and give you peace.
Continuing those nice deep breaths,
I invite you to sit with that image of God not only blessing and guarding,
This is often translated as keeping,
Bless you and keep you,
But also this idea of his face lighting up to us.
His face lifting up to us as he grants us grace and peace.
There's so much that we know now in the world of interpersonal neurobiology about how crucial connection is and that in that connection it is crucial to have face-to-face attunement and presence.
And I love that thousands of years before we have all this scientific,
You know,
Jargon and clinical language to speak about this and research to back it up,
We have so many beautiful examples in our sacred scriptures of God offering his face,
His presence to his people,
Attuning to those that he has created,
Offering a life-giving light in that face connection.
And whatever meaning this might hold for different depths of you,
Different facets of your soul,
I encourage you to simply be curious as I close this with a prayer,
Seeing how this might speak to different parts of you.
Lord God,
I thank you that in your creation of us,
You have also sought out intimate relationship,
Personal connection,
And that no matter what we have ever done to get in the way of that,
To mess that up,
To complicate that,
In your goodness and your grace and your light and your mercy,
You pursue us,
You shine upon us,
And you sustain relationship with us.
You offer the blessing and the light of your face to us,
Even when we try to hide,
Even when we try to run away,
Even when we try to ignore that you're there,
Even when our perspective can't see you.
And thinks that you've gone away.
I pray that in whatever ways the depths of our soul are in need of the light of your face,
That you would shine the light of your face into those depths,
Into those facets,
Those spaces where we need your light,
We need your hope,
And in whatever ways this doesn't feel connected,
Or this feels distant,
I pray that you would give us a taste,
A glimmer,
A hope of your presence,
And that we will one day experience the fullness of your light and your presence.
Amen.
