Growing up in a music-loving household, my brother and I got used to hearing classical music on Sunday afternoons. My parents had an impressive collection of LP’S. “The Three B’s” were well represented: Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. Those themes, those melodies, have been permanently etched in my brain and soul. Their amazing musical genius has a way of doing that – transporting you to so many memories, places, and moods. “The Three B’s” are always mentioned in that order. Not only is it chronological, it is alphabetical!

I love that kind of order. I have a weird gift for being able to name all the states in alphabetical order, and the Presidents in order. Speaking of the Presidents, this being “Presidents Day”, did you know that there are “Three B’s of Presidents”? Yes, only three of the forty-five have last names beginning with that letter. They are: Buchanan and … you should know the other two. They are father-son, more contemporary.

Okay. Enough of this nonsense.

I would suggest that there are three “B’s” when it comes to our Christian faith. Appropriately, they are all connected to the first of the “7 Habits of Jesus”. That would be remembering our baptism. We are broken, baptized and blessed. Our broken sinful nature bids us come to the cleansing waters to be washed and made new. It is God’s action through the power of the Holy Spirit that claims us as daughters and sons. Even when we believe the “choice” is ours, I think it is God always doing the nudging. It sometimes (most times?) happens on a subliminal level.

Of course, the final “B” – blessed – is the natural state that God continues to bestow on us. No matter how much we take the continual state of being blessed for granted, God gives it to us freely.  Along with His love which is unconditional.

Pastor Art