It Takes Two to Bless

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Today’s reading: Psalm 34:1-10

I can’t believe I’ve missed this all these years I’ve been studying the Bible: today’s reading says “I will bless the LORD at all times;” (Verse 1)

That is a very interesting thought! (Not to mention uplifiting!)

It means all that study of “communication theory” I did in college was also an exercise in theology.

Like every student of communications I found myself confronted in Day 1 of my classes with a pictographic labeled “The Communication Model.”  This famous picture appears in a wide variety of forms in communication textbooks, but the gist is this: communication is circular. At the top of the circle is a message from the sender to the receiver and at the bottom of the circle is a return message. Communication is complete, according to the model, only when the circle is complete. In other words, all the famous sayings are correct: it does take two to tango, and communication is a two way street. Communication cannot be said to happen until both parties have participated.

Who knew  all that egg-headed analysis of human communication had anything to do with God?!

It turns out, communication with God works exactly as it does with people. God blesses me, and then it becomes my duty to bless Him in return. Otherwise, the blessing I have received is impotent, meaningless, only half-of-the circle. Sure it’s there. God blesses us all infinitely. But if I don’t acknowledge it, with a return blessing, it’s invisible (except to God, of course).

This is all reminiscent of the famous philosophical question about a tree falling in a forest. Does it make a sound if no one is around to  hear it?  Communication experts would say, no. A sound, like all forms of communication, requires both a sender and a receiver. Further, they would say, a sound also requires that the receiver immediately become a sender. Feedback is key to the definition of  “sound.”

And that bottom line is true of blessings.

If I receive a blessing from God, but then do not acknowledge it with a blessing of my own back to Him, it becomes debatable whether I have really been blessed at all.

Thanks be to God for eternal blessings. May I always remember to acknowledge them with blessings of my own.