A 'Barak' New Year

It seems so shallow to use the prefaces"Happy" and "Merry" as greetings during what are, for many, one of the most difficult seasons of the year. 

Our constitution defines "Happy" as "the pursuit of happiness". Happy, by definition, means to feel "pleasure or contentment" or to have "a sense of confidence and/or satisfaction with a person, arrangement, or situation". It's synonyms are to be "glad, fortunate, joyful, lucky, merry, cheerful" - a tall order for those who are barely making it, uncertain of their futures, and accosted by uncertainty. In truth, while meant well, such greetings are nothing more, and another casualty of our culture, "Merry Christmas" has become, for many, a test to see who will say it back. 

The Amplified Bible defines the word "blessed" as "happy, fortunate, and to be envied".  The Hebrew word for blessed is 'Barak'. Jeff Penner, in Ancient Hebrew Word Meanings" describes the verb barak as "to bless as seen in Genesis 12:2 but can also mean kneel as seen in Gensis 24:11. A related Hebrew word is 'berakah' meaning a blessing, or a gift or present. From this we can see the concrete meaning behind 'barak' in the sense of a blessing. It is to bring a gift to another while kneeling out of respect. The entended meaning of this word is to do or give something of value to value to another. God blesses us by providing for our needs and we in turn are to 'Bless' God by giving him of ourselves as his servants."

The word 'entitlement' has bobbed to the top  of 'hot' words this year; and, if one is looking for it, the effects of what it refers to are everywhere. The fact is that, as believers, we are the recipients of Grace, offered without cost or recrimination - and we are certainly not entitled to it.  If we take the meaning of "barakah" literally, we are essentially 'kneeling' before Him when we 'kneel' before another and offer them the gift of His grace that we received when it was offered to us. 

True Christlike humility becomes, in a sense, our posture when offering eternity in Heaven to another; and truly should bring us to our knees when we recall  that "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". I wish you a "Barak New Year"!