Give me your blessing, holy Son of God

There are people from whom I do not feel especially interested in receiving a blessing.

I would prefer an apology, a changed behavior, or at least some indication that they understand what happened.

This lesson asks me to look at another person and ask for their blessing.

That does not mean I ask them to approve of me or give them access they have not handled well. The blessing is not something their personality must consciously offer.

It comes through my willingness to see what God created beneath the role I assigned them.

When I make someone the cause of my suffering, I also make them the keeper of my release. They must become different before I can be free.

Asking for their blessing means allowing the encounter to teach me that my peace was never theirs to withhold.

I have experienced this with someone whose opinion I kept rehearsing long after the conversation ended. In my mind, they became the person who misunderstood me. I kept returning to the exchange, trying to compose the explanation that would finally make them see me correctly.

Their blessing arrived when I recognized that being misunderstood had not changed me.

They did not have to say anything new. My mind became willing to release them from the job of confirming who I was.

The holy Son of God is not the flawless version of another person. It is the identity that remains intact beneath every fearful choice—mine and theirs.

Seeing that holiness may lead toward reconciliation. It may also allow a boundary to become cleaner because I no longer need it to carry punishment.

Today I want to bring to mind someone I have made responsible for restoring my peace.

Perhaps the blessing is freedom from the argument I keep having in their absence.

Perhaps it is the recognition that neither of us became only what happened between us.