The cross-handed blessing...

In Genesis chapter 48, as Jacob is reaching the end of his life, he calls in his son Joseph and explains that he wants to bless his two grandsons, Manasseh and Ephraim. These two boys were Joseph’s sons that had been born in Egypt, and something rather intriguing happens as Jacob reaches out to lay hands on the boys. Joseph has positioned them so that Jacob’s right hand will touch Manasseh and his left hand rest on Ephraim - presumably because the right hand was for the older son and was symbolic of the greater blessing.

For some reason, Jacob crosses his arms and places his hands differently, so that his right hand rests on Ephraim and his left hand on Manasseh. What prompted him to do this? I can think of one or two possible reasons, but that’s for a different blog post at a different time. Instead, what stood out to me in my reading this morning was a rather encouraging parallel that this account brought to mind.

It struck me that we don’t need to fret and fear that we’ll miss out on a blessing if it seems like life’s circumstances have put us in the “wrong place.” If our hearts are right before the Lord, God is able to “cross his hands” and reach out to bless us, right where we are.

I think, for example, of people who leave the mission field they were called to, and go home to look after an ageing parent. I think of friends of mine who recently had to leave the Middle East and return to their home country so that their youngest child could get care for a rare and degenerative form of autism. I think of missionaries whose visas are denied, like the many who were thrown out of Morocco a few years ago. I think of myself when damage to my lungs meant that I had to leave Austria, right at the point when I was about to make a longer missionary commitment there...

That illness seemed to take me away from my calling and put me in the “wrong place.” Yet, little did I know that the move would put me on the trajectory that has largely shaped my life’s journey until today. My many years in Africa and now in Spain were built upon the foundation of those unexpected years in Scotland in the 1990s.

God is not limited by our geography. When life’s circumstances appear to knock us off track, He can nonethess “cross his hands” and make sure that we receive His blessing right where we are. As I wrote in Tuesday’s blog post, He will be with us even in our “Egypts” and nothing - nothing except our own wilful disobedience - can prevent Him from blessing us.