Bless You!

I hope it's okay to post a devotional thought from Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing in its entirety -- it's brief, so I can't really just quote the small bit that I like. I do like this, though, and hope you do, too.

BLESS YOU!

[God said,] "I will surely bless you." Genesis 22:17 (NIV)

People say, "Bless you!" when you sneeze.
"Bless" has turned into a bit of a feeble word.

But in the Bible it's much stronger.
(And it has nothing to do with sneezing!)

When God promises to bless you, he is saying, "I'm going to make you into everything I ever meant for you to be!"

It means God is taking every day and every single thing that happens in it -- good or bad -- to make you stronger, to mend whatever is broken inside, to change you into the person you were always meant to be.

Just as a caterpillar is totally changed into a butterfly, being blessed means being totally transformed.

God is transforming everything - his broken world - and you.

Sally Lloyd-Jones, Thoughts to Make Your Heart Sing, pp 48-49