My sweet neighbors are from Kentucky. I love visiting with them. No matter what we’re talking about, I’m sure to hear her say, Bless her heart. It’s one of those multi-purpose phrases that can mean so many things. My neighbor always uses it to express sympathy or concern. I’m sure you’ve also heard it with a different inflection, which gives it an entirely different meaning.
I came across this phrase in the Bible the other day. Elizabeth says it when Mary comes to visit her – “In a loud voice she exclaimed: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” (Luke 1:42 NIV)
We generally consider someone who is blessed to be fortunate, prosperous, happy. Filled with good things. I wonder if Mary felt that way. Mary, an unwed pregnant teenager who didn’t yet know if her fiance would abandon her or her parents would disown her or her community would stone her. Her world had just been turned upside down.
Perhaps these were just the words of encouragement she needed spoken over her. Elizabeth certainly wasn’t being snarky – her words are a glad cry – Blessed are you! There is goodness here, Mary. You are fortunate. Honored. Mary couldn’t yet know how much goodness was inside of her. How much goodness her child was going to bring into the world.
Mary’s baby was Jesus, the Messiah. He was a blessing, healing the sick, forgiving sins, setting free those in spiritual bondage. But on the surface, His life didn’t seem to necessarily be one of great blessing. He spent three years as a homeless wanderer, rejected by His hometown, an embarrassment to His family, before He was arrested, falsely accused and executed.
So I got curious. What does it mean to be blessed? It’s one of those church words that pops up a lot. Surely when my friends say bless your heart it can’t mean the same thing as when Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” (Matthew 5:3).
Turns out the word bless means to make something sacred or holy. It’s a word of goodness, of approval, of happiness. Isn’t this what we long for? Now when I read Elizabeth’s greeting, I see it in a whole new light – Mary, you’re being made holy! Holding onto your trust in God in the face of all these doubts and challenges is refining you.
Holiness isn’t something that we get just by asking. It isn’t a chip we insert or a button we push on the vending machine. It’s the result of the lifelong process of being crafted by God. The imperfect being rubbed away and the goodness, the wholeness, that God designed us for being revealed.
One other interesting thing about the word bless. It’s derived from an old English word for blood, from the use of blood in consecrating things to God. The blood of Mary’s Son is what consecrates us, makes us holy, causes us to be approved by God, fills us with goodness, completes us, gives us great joy. There is no greater blessing.