The Power of a blessing

   What can you give your new baby that will stay with him forever?  Mom may  accept rattles, pillows, blankets, diapers, onesies, formula, monitors and other gifts  to celebrate the new birth?  But what does a baby really need?

   Your baby needs a blessing.

   He needs to know there is a special place for him in this home.  She needs to know that Mom and Dad always love her and she matters no matter what. 
   Yes, I’m really all right.                                           Only $14.95
   He needs to know where he came from, that he also has a Father in heaven Who loves him and is watching out for him. 

    In the days of the patriarchs fathers waited until a special day to give their children a formal blessing.  We see that in the lives of Jacob and Esau it was so coveted that Jacob lied to get it and Esau cried bitterly when he lost it.

     When Esau heard his father’s words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry and said to
        his father, “Bless me –me too, my father!”
                                                                             Genesis 27:34

      The blessing is what tells your baby that he is too special to waste his life doing something like drugs.  The intrinsic sense of high value will help our daughters stay pure until they find God’s man for them. 
      Jesus also wants to bless the little children.  His own disciples rebuked parents for bringing little children to Him.
   
     When Jesus saw this he was indignant. He said to them, “Let the little children come to
        me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.  I
        tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will
        never enter it.”  And he took the children in his arm, put his hands on them and
        blessed them.
                                                                            Mark 10:14-16

     Jesus wants to bless our kids and we do to.  How can we?   John Trent and Gary Smalley address this beautifully in their book The Power of a Blessing.  They cite five elements of the blessing:  1) meaningful touch,  2) a spoken message,  3) attaching high value to the one being blessed,  4) picturing a special future for the one being blessed and 5) an active commitment to fulfill the blessing.

   You can’t buy the blessing in a bottle.  It has to be part of you.  But one way you can begin the process of blessing your child even as a baby is by speaking words of blessing over him or her using the symbolism of the same gifts given to Jesus when He was born.

GOLD
    Gold says to Baby Jesus “You will be a king.”  Your baby most likely will not be a king on this earth but with God as His heavenly Father he has a royal heritage also.  Gold further speaks of the durability the blessing can bring your child.  You pound it, burn it, even stretch it to even a few thousands of an inch but you will not destroy it.
    We remember  Job who amidst more trials than we could imagine, said that when God tested him he would “come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10). Beyond the baby steps under your protection your child will face great trials in life, but it will be faith which tried like fire will help him through it.

   In this [your salvation] you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have
     had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that your faith –of greater
     worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire –may be proved genuine
     and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
                                                                                   I Peter 1:6-7

   To be sure gold is a symbol for wealth, but it also a symbol for enduring faith and it is in this sense that Jesus counsels us to get it.
  
   I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich.
                                                                                   Revelation 3:18

FRANKINCENSE
    was an herb thought to be calming and soothing, but more famous in Jewish culture as “incense” burned by the High Priest as a holy fragrance to God.  (Exodus 30:34).  Its presentation to Jesus says to Him, “You will be a Priest.”   In blessing your baby frankincense says, “You have a Priest (Heb 4:14), One who can understand all your weaknesses, all your fears, all your troubles and Who even now is praying for you (Heb 7:25).

    In fact as a gift offered by the High Priest to God, the frankincense further speaks of the fact that Baby Jesus is also divine.  We are not God but what greater blessing than to consider that your baby as created in the image of God (Gen 1:27)?

MYRRH  
   from the Arabic word for bitter is a bitter herb.  Used as a wound healer and a pain medicine it was most famous as a preservative and was used as a burial spice.  In fact, the Egyptians buried mummies in it and Jesus given myrrh at His birth was buried in it at His death (John 19:39).

    How then could a symbol of death be a blessing to this new baby? 
 
    Because the greatest act of love toward you and me was Jesus’ voluntary sacrificial death to pay the price for our sins.

   For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
                                                                      John 3:16

   
   How great a blessing it would be when your Baby understands that if need be you would die for him.   How humbling it is to consider that God Himself would come to earth and die for His people.

   The gift of the blessing is a gift for the ages.  And one way to begin is with Jesus’ Baby Presents: Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh.

   The enclosed book "Unto Us a Child" is Born includes a Prayer of Blessing over your new Baby.