God Bless You, I Mean Something "Nice"

It has done our souls well to memorize parts of the Scripture. We wish we had more, so we work at it. I mull passages through my mind long before I preach them. Difficult situations arise and my mind goes immediately to Biblical narratives, or proverbs. Debbie and I talk about the Scripture every day. I love the wisdom of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, James, and Jesus short sayings. They resonate in my inner being. I have been reminded lately that "wisdom is proved right by all her children." Time will tell you, and every one around you, who was wise. Time tells so much. Time tells that the Scripture is true.

As you might imagine, I quote a lot of Scripture in my conversations. I believe the verse that says "the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple." (Ok, I believe all of them :-) ) I know that I have been simple and I have seen God bless others too. He has made them wise and hopefully He will continue to make me wise, but it is a process. The Scripture is a great part of the story telling I do. It gives me another standard, a true standard, to handle the world.   

In the process of communication I have developed my greeting. Any Saturday, it is my job to be door man and cheerleader at the free clinic at our church building. Most clinic days I great dozens of people individually. I resort to calling on God to bless perfect strangers.  "God bless you!" to a poor, sick, neighbor is almost universally a welcome, healing, balm. It is the help that the poor people know intuitively is our ultimate help. Those neighbors, the patients, usually smile and greet me with "God bless you too!"  I am equally helped and healed by this interaction. 

I greet the students who come from three Universities at the same door as I do the patients. These students hear the same greeting, "God bless you!" The students reaction calls to mind one of Jesus sayings "However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?" The students, with rare exceptions, put their head down and rush in to the clinic area.  It has become so noticeable that I have told the students in our group gathering that I mean something "nice" when I say it. They laugh, and now a few know that they should respond with "thank you" or "God bless you too." Yet it is an indication that Biblical literacy, a common place in American history, has long turned to illiteracy. God help those who know His Word to believe it enough to share it.

Psalm 19:7, Luke 7:35, Luke 18:8