Baruchu

What a week so far! and not that it has bee na bad one, but it has been one of challenges, one of fits and starts and starting over. We are in a time of blessing. Thinking this morning of the berakhot I am reminded that one of the principal things about berakhot is that, for mthe very beginning of the day we are training ourselves to bless our lives and bless the One who gives them to us. I grew up into a suspcious person, into one who thought it was his job to eye the gifts of God with suspicion and not to see the best in everything, one who believed itwas sacred duty to cry out in skepticism to God, one who lived in a theology where God could not be entirely trusted.

Baruch atah Adonai... Blessed are you lord, who removes sleep from my eyelids, blessed are you lord who separates day from night. Blessed are you Lord... Who is present in every moment of our lives, turning all of our lives to blessing. I am afraid, still, to relewnt, to rejoice, to bless you. I am afraid to walk across the waters. There is a part of me still waiting for the sea to come crashing down, still waiting to be shown up for being to trusting. What a fool that part of me is. Forgive him, Lord.

In the ancient world the people from who the Jews came revered places as sacred. They revered stones and mountain tops, holy boxes, the dark spaces behind curtains in the holy parts of temples. Israel said all of these were one, all of these gods were at the end one. We do recognize God in places-- Makom. We still call him our Rock. We are called, in prayer, to recognize the presence of God in everything we see.