On blessing
originally written November 12, 2025
I have been thinking a lot about blessing lately. The daily portions of the Torah are in the story of Abraham and Sarah right now, and I am always inspired by God telling Abraham that he and his descendants will be a blessing to the nations. It isn’t that we are to bring a blessing or to give a blessing, but to be a blessing. And what does that mean? What kind of a blessing can one person be? We can see lives like that of Mother Theresa or Rabbi Jonathan Sacks or the Dalai Lama; they certainly have been a blessing to the world. It’s harder to see how one regular person, working through the routine of life, can be a blessing. What goals should I set? How will I know I am blessing enough? Do I accomplish this once and then move on? Just tell me what to do, and I can do it!
And it’s why, as soon as I learned that the top-level domain .ing exists--by visiting a website that ended with bless.ing--I purchased sarahsbless.ing and saraisbless.ing. And wished I’d purchased miriamsbless.ing as well. (If it’s available, I still might!) Because Abraham is to be a blessing to nations, to populations, to big things. I don’t know how to be a blessing to big things like that. But I can be a blessing in small things. I can give a smile to the lady working the drive-through window at Wendy’s. I can be kind to a friend... or a stranger. I can make K’s favorite supper or surprise her with cheesecake. I can talk quietly with the mourning dove in the tree, without insisting on aggressive eye contact. I can support my colleagues. I can be a blessing to the lives I touch.
And that, I believe, is Sarah’s blessing. Sarah is a blessing for small things. When we become Sarah’s blessing, we are a blessing to our own microcosm. Some may be intended for blessing nations, but most of us are not. Most of us have only a small world to serve. And when we live as a blessing in that world, then we are living as God wants us to.
How will you be a blessing today? How will you be Sarah?
I’m not really doing anything right now with sarahsbless.ing or saraisbless.ing. But more recently I’ve purchased MiriamsWisdom.com, and that will be the URL for this publication soon. Any links you have to hrollins.substack.com will still work.