At the end of my church’s worship services there is a benediction that goes like this: "May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace." Have you ever wondered where this benediction comes from? It comes from an Old Testament passage in Numbers 24:5-6. I love the blessings of God, don't you? When God blesses His people we have good reason to rejoice! I was thinking of that recently when I came upon today's verse. Let's listen to it:

May the Lord continually bless you from Zion. May you see Jerusalem prosper as long as you live. May you live to enjoy your grandchildren. (Psa. 128:5-6a)

Today's passage was originally intended as a blessing for the people of Israel. The blessing begins with a kind of national blessing but then it moves to the personal, saying, " May you live to enjoy your grandchildren." One of the blessings that many of us discover late in life is the blessing of having grandchildren. We are not really prepared for it because it taps into a kind of love we never experienced in the past. It's a different kind of love from the love we have for our children or our friends or our pets or even for our spouse. Most of us are in our fifties or sixties when it happens. We think we've experienced all the kinds of love there are in the world and then...surprise! A new kind of love comes into our lives. If you have grandchildren, you know what I mean. I'm so thankful today for God's blessing of grandchildren. These verses from Psalm 128 reminds us that later in life, God can still surprise us with the depth of His love.

No matter how old you and I are, God still has wonderful surprises in store for us...and that is very Good News!