Bring several different kinds of stuffed animals (hopefully 1 for each kid). Make sure they’re the kind of animals not typically brought to a blessing of the animals event.
Hi everyone!
I’m very glad to see you today.
So today is a fun day because we’re worshipping in a new space (the fellowship hall) and we’re surrounded by….animals! Describe all the different animals that you see. They’re here for a very special reason. They’re here because we’re going to bless them.
It’s a bit of an odd thing to bless something. We don’t do that all the time. We usually only do it when someone sneezes. They’ll sneeze Ah-choo! And we’ll sometimes tell them God Bless You. And that’s a blessing. It’s a strange blessing but it’s one of the few times in our daily life when we’ll say the word “bless.” But we don’t have to only use the word bless when we sneeze. In fact, God invites us to bless everything.
Because a blessing is three things. A blessing, first, is a celebration. We see something or someone in our life who is about to do something difficult or new or maybe just needs us to point it out to other people that this is important – so every blessing is a celebration – of noticing what’s important and asking God to see it too. An blessing is, second, a prayer. We talk to God and ask that this person or animal or object is given all the good and loving and wonderful things that God can give. A blessing is, third, an act of faith. It’s when we say, in a very public way, that God is important to us – and we trust in God – and so we ask God to bring goodness to whatever it is that we bless. God knows what this person or thing or animal needs. And God will be with them always. But we can, as followers of Jesus, take a moment to celebrate something special, to pray about it with God, and to trust that God will be loving and kind and awesome.
So that’s why we bless all sorts of things. We bless weddings and people. We bless babies when they’re born and gardens when we plant them. We bless animals because of all the love the bring in our lives and we also bless each other – each and every week at the end of the service – because all of us need to remember just how loved we are and just how important we are to God.
Now who do you think can do blessings? Pastors. Pastors can! And that’s part of what I get to do. But we can also bless each other. So I brought these animals up here so that you can practice blessings. So let’s try it.
Pass out the animals. Practice Cookie the Goldfish, creature of God, may the Father Son and Holy Spirit bless you now and forever. Amen
That’s it! You just blessed something. So later today, you can bless your friends, your siblings, and definitely your parents because we all need blessing sometimes. And God invites us to bless all things and all people every day – because when we bless, we share God’s love.
Thank you for being here! And I hope you have a blessed week.
Each week, I share a reflection for all children of God. The written manuscript serves as a springboard for what I do. This is from Christ Lutheran Church’s Worship on 5th Sunday after Pentecost, 6/24/2018.