Passing On the Blessing God Gives to Each of Us

Today’s (4/23/2025) New York Times featured an op-ed piece by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro reflecting on the April 13 early morning break-in and firebombing of the Governor’s residence while the Shapiro family slept (the Governor, his wife, his children and the family dogs).

Once the fire was out and the Shapiro family was safe firefighters took Shapiro back into the residence.

As I walked through the doorway, my nose burned from the smell of smoke. It was eerily quiet, but I could hear water dripping from the ceiling. My feet sloshed on the soaked floor.

The beautiful state dining room — where my family and I celebrated our Passover Seder with family and community just a few hours earlier — was completely destroyed.

Windows were smashed in, and there was glass everywhere. Some tables were turned over, and others had just melted away. Artwork from the New Deal era that had hung on display for visitors to enjoy had disintegrated into the walls. Plates we had eaten our Seder dinner on were broken and covered in soot. The Haggadah — our prayer book for the Seder — was burned so badly, only a few short lines of text were recognizable.

Shapiro continued saying this kind of violence must stop.

As elected leaders, we have an additional responsibility to speak and act with moral clarity. To not just call out what’s right and what’s wrong but also to do the hard work of bringing people together to find common ground in a world that’s constantly trying to divide us.

William Penn founded our commonwealth as a place where all would be welcome — a place of tolerance and understanding where people of different faiths could live together in peace.

This experience has made me more determined than ever to not only welcome people of all faiths back to the governor’s residence — where we’ve lit Christmas trees, held iftars and danced at a bar mitzvah — but also to do my part to address the political division and violence in America today.

On Thursday at the Harrisburg Bureau of Fire, an elderly man named John Wardle, the Christian chaplain from the Penn Township Volunteer Fire Department, gave me a letter signed by every member of his department. On the back of the letter, he had handwritten a prayer for our family, from Numbers 6:24-26:

The Lord bless you
and keep you;
the Lord make his face shine on you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace.

Reading Shapiro’s essay made me feel how important it is for all of us to receive that blessing every day. Pastor/writer John Ortberg sees the blessing as being anchored on 5 fundamentals all human relationships need:

Acceptance

Affection

Appreciation

Attention

Allowing

Here is how Ortberg imagines the Holy Spirit prays that blessing over each of us every day.

1. The Lord bless you. To bless is the opposite of cursing. We are fully accepted. “There is now no condemnation.” (Romans 8:1) God never condemns or shames us.

2. And keep you. The Lord keeps us, caring for us and showing us compassion and deep affection.

3. The Lord make his face to shine upon you. He appreciates you for who we are. I sometimes look at my 2-year-old granddaughter when she says to me, “Papa, sit right here. Watch me color.” I think it’s something like that. I look at that beautiful little face and marvel at God’s incredible creation. I wonder if my face radiates the pleasure I feel.

4. The Lord turn his face toward you. The Lord looks at us right in the eye, giving us his complete attention. Psalm 121 says, “The Lord himself watches over you! … The Lord keeps watch over you as come and go, both now and forever.” (V 5-7) Again, I think of me sitting next to my granddaughter coloring and her saying, “Look at me Papa. Watch me.” Over and over the Lord looks at each of us. We are the apple of his eye.

5. And give you peace. This is the Lord allowing us to be completely safe in being ourselves, to be who we were created to be. We never have to pretend to be someone we aren’t.

Today Jesus is praying to God the Father for us and giving us his acceptance, affection, appreciation, attention and allowing.

I receive that priestly blessing. Guided by the Spirit, I will try to pass it on to others.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus said. God knows there is plenty of trouble in the world. But we have an advocate, an encourager, a helper—the Holy Spirit. May the Spirit bless us with this Numbers 6 blessing so we can pass it on to whomever we meet.