We are at home quite a bit at the moment, as I imagine you are too. We have worked our way through Disney re-makes and Aladdin is a family favourite. In this movie the Genie (we heart Will Smith) grants wishes. Wishes are something we often ask for. ‘I wish for…’ ‘I wish it would just…’ ‘I wish you wouldn’t…’

I’m not sure how to make wishes come true.

Another phrase we use is ‘blessings’ but in a different way. We don’t tend to ask for blessings like we wish for things. We tend instead to ‘count our blessings’ or say ‘bless you’ to others after a sneeze or an endearing act. If we stop and notice we often can see how we are blessed, often these are blessings which we stumble across, given by gracious acts of others. I was blessed this week with flowers from Tesco staff for being an NHS worker. I was blessed by the way they helped us all navigate the new shopping rules with kindness and good humour. And Hotel Chocolat dropped chocolates they can’t sell anymore to one of the hospitals to cheer along the staff. What a delightful gift!

Blessings, generally, are a gift. And most often, completely unexpected.

My Mum made care packages for our kids a couple of weeks ago which we picked up and they have got out a gift one day at a time. Today they opened bubbles. So we offered bubbles of blessing in our front room. (I first came across this idea on the Centre for Paediatric Spiritual Care https://bwc.nhs.uk/centre-for-paediatric-spiritual-care/).

We need blessings and to be able to bless one another, now, more than ever.

The bubbles taught me about this. As I watched the bubbles form through the breath of another and transform a space in the air, it made me wonder about all the ways that blessings are like bubbles…

If we look carefully we can see our reflection in these bubbles, just as in a blessing. Bubbles catch the light in a curious way, make a colourful interpretation of that bit of the world. They temporarily change the space the bubble occupies. Blessings do this too, temporarily transform a space into something mysterious and delicate, because its almost impossible try to touch or explain it.

Bubbles don’t last for long. We need blessings anew each day. To give them and receive them.

When we blew bubbles in our lounge, my 7 year old son said ‘these bubbles are filling the room!’ Blessings can do this too at times, fill a whole space, make it full of wonder.

My 5 year old daughter wrote her own blessing which included the words, ‘and then the angels came.’ You may be able to think of a moment when angels have come to you too, in some form or other.

It may be of value whether we are 5 or 45 or 95, to write our own words of blessing at this time. What would we like say or do to bless the world? Perhaps in a way that it does not expect…