A Blessing: Reminding Us of God's Story

In June I heard two of the women from the group Rain for Roots sing at the Children’s Spirituality Conference. Rain for Roots creates music for children that is theologically rich.  They also included some children singing with them and it was great to hear their songs sung live. 

In addition to the music, one of the women, Katy Bowser Hutson, shared this Huguenot blessing that she and her husband speak to their children nightly. Her children are named Story and Del so this includes their names in the blessing:

Story and Del, for you God made the world.

For you he was born a little child in Bethlehem.

For you he suffered bitterly in the garden of Gethsemane. 

For you he bled and died on the cross,

And for you he was raised again from the dead. 

You can’t know these things now. 

But we your church promise to tell you the story until you make it you own. 

Katy changed the last two lines to:

Now, you’re beginning to understand these things,

And we promise to tell you the story until you make it your own.

Katy was inundated with people who asked her to send them this blessing and I was one of those people. In reading it again, I see that speaking this to children not only blesses them but it reminds them and us of why we tell these stories. Besides family use, this blessing could be said at the end of a Sunday school class or Children worship time. A congregation could use it for Sunday school commissioning or blessing of the backpacks. I find that I am often looking for words that eloquently and simply speak the truth of what it is we’re trying to do in faith formation. These words are a great example.