Door Blessings

Do you know the story of the Passover in Exodus 12:7 & 12 where God tells the children of Israel to paint the tops and sides of their doors with the blood of a spotless lamb? He told them to do this so the Angel of Death would know which doors to ‘pass over’.  Well, I think some of that tradition has been written into the DNA of the Chinese civilization as well. Each year at Chinese New Year the people will put up paper blessings at the top and sides of their doors.

typical door covering

Above you can see a typical door blessing. They can cover a wide variety of subjects but most of them are for good health and prosperity. All of the teachers were given door blessings at the New Year. Some of them posted them as normal.  Some ignored the gift and put up their own ideas of blessings.

Happy Marriage

Even our Muslim English teacher put up her individualized blessing.

Muslim Blessing

And we went across town to the one sanctioned church here and bought a Christian blessing to put around our door. The top is the word Emmanuel and the sides are blessings from scripture. We can all have our ways of subtle witness to be a light where we live.

our scriptural blessing

May you all find appropriate ways to be a light to shine to your neighbors. Every little bit helps.