The Great Blessing Debates

Sarah, Abraham's wife has died. he is, of course, grieving; yet, he must bury her. he goes to the people who live in the land in which he is dwelling to inquire about a grave. they tell him to pick his spot and he does...a plot of land belonging to a man named ephron.

"ephron", says abe, "let me buy that piece of land".

"no...you can have it"

"please, let me buy it"

"no, you can have it, honest"

so on and so on...who will bless whom? we had this friend in college, lenny. lenny was a great guy. he was fun to hang with, he was always encouraging, always made you feel good. which are good and godly qualities.

but lenny would never let you bless him. if you were walking with him and the two of you came to a door at the same time and you said "you first", he would take a step back and say "no, you first". if you chose to, the two of you could stand there for 10 minutes trying to "out nice" the other...

now, i'm not saying stop being nice to each other...i like nice people, i try to be nice...nice people make life at least a bit more enjoyable...

but, sometimes, being nice is humbling yourself and letting someone else be the one who blesses.

tmw's reading Gn 25:1-26:35; Ps 7:6-8; Pr 3:9-10; Mt 9:18-38