bless you!

An early start today.

My nephew was staying last night, on his way from Dundee to Saudi, where he presently works. It was great to see him again, he's a lovely young man.

I took him to the station, concerned somewhat that the further south he was going today the more he would run into snow. There was even some doubt as to whether his plane for the marginally warmer climes of Saudi would ever take off tonight. I believe it did.

Edinburgh's traffic gets heavily congested these days. So I had to leave in good time to make sure he was there at the station in time for his train.

There is a way to get to the station by car. It's just that it's not always easy to find!

I was glad to be up and about, though, as there's loads of admin I needed to tackle first thing. Forms to be filled and letters to write and e-mails to send and all sorts of stuff that I had to be doing on-line.

It filled most of the morning. And that was without interruption.

There were people to see in the afternoon - mainly relating to both of the funerals later this week. And then some preparation for the service of thanksgiving tomorrow.

I had an e-mail from a friend who knows (in a vague sort of way) one of the relatives of the man who died, whose funeral is tomorrow. This relative's been 'seeking' for a while, trying to make sense of life. Tomorrow may just be a another small part of the jigsaw being put in place by the Lord.

It's a thrill to be able to see how the Lord is at work in so many people's lives. And to know that our words may be far more important than what we had possibly thought.

Which, in some ways, was the note that we struck when I met later on with the small group of folk whom I meet with on a regular basis.

It started two years ago now with simply three. Myself and a couple who really just wanted to find out what who on earth this guy Jesus was, or is, and why or how he possibly makes a difference here and now.

A year or so later the three grew to five. And these last few weeks there's been six. A lady who's been part of the congregation here for years started coming along. Full of questions, too, which is great.

Tonight we were up to seven. A lady who was once, I think, quite heavily involved within a local church, but somehow drifted off. Well, she's come back and is keen to learn. And who knows where the whole thing will go!

We've been reading our way through Genesis. Not very quickly, I have to say. Tonight (once again) we were stuck in chapter 14.

This time with Melchizedek. It's tempting, I guess, to skip these bits. They're kind of odd in a way.

But the guy's an interesting man. And these few short verses tucked away in Genesis 14 always really excite me.

The man, so we're told, was the king of Salem. And also the priest of God. An interesting combination. King and priest.

No wonder the New Testament writers latched onto the guy and saw in him a picture of who Jesus is. The king and the priest.

And what he does is simply come out and converse with good old Abraham and then he proceeds to bless him. I mean, that must have made Abraham feel pretty good.

So we talked for a while about how we, too, may simply 'bless' the people round about us every day. Because that's what Jesus makes us - kings and priests.

And this is what kings and priests do. They bless people.

So next time I'm asked what it is that I do, I think I'll just say - I bless people!