{"id":4751,"date":"2025-07-16T09:27:43","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T13:27:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4751"},"modified":"2025-07-16T09:27:43","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T13:27:43","slug":"a-sign-of-blessing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/16\/a-sign-of-blessing\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sign of Blessing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a>

One of the most iconic elements of the Star Trek<\/em> universe came about because a Jewish boy dared to sneak a peek at a sacred moment.

During the filming of the 1967 (original series) episode \u201cAmok Time,\u201d Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock \u2013 the half-human, half-Vulcan science officer of the USS Enterprise<\/em> \u2013 felt prompted to offer some sort of greeting when encountering a particular alien species.

He remembered a moment that had deeply impressed him as a child.

Nimoy, whose family was nominally Jewish, had been recruited to sing in the synagogue choir during the holidays. At one point, five or six men stood before the congregation, passionately reciting Aaron\u2019s high priestly blessing from Numbers 6:24-26.

According to tradition, every eye was to be closed. Otherwise, one might be dazzled by the blinding light of the Shekinah \u2013 God\u2019s glory cloud. As Nimoy later admitted, \u201cI peeked.\u201d

He never forgot what he saw.

As the men recited the Aaronic blessing, they held up their hands, palms forward, thumbs extended, creating a gap between their middle and ring fingers. Nimoy later learned they were symbolically representing the Hebrew letter shin<\/em> (which looks like this: \u05e9), which simultaneously stood for Shekinah, Shaddai (\u201cAlmighty\u201d), and shalom (\u201cpeace\u201d).

Nimoy said, \u201cWhen I saw the split-fingered gesture of these men\u2026I was entranced. I learned to do it simply because it seemed so magical.\u201d

Twenty-five years later, when it was time to film the scene of Spock\u2019s alien encounter, Star Trek<\/em> creator Gene Roddenberry had not scripted a salute of any kind. But he was intrigued when Nimoy stepped forward and said, \u201cHow about this?\u201d For the actor, it had always represented a blessing \u2013 a heartfelt declaration of peace and goodwill.

Ultimately, the so-called Vulcan salute became associated with the words, \u201cLive long and prosper.\u201d No one had any clue it would resonate so powerfully with the Star Trek<\/em> fanbase, becoming part and parcel of the series narrative.\u00a0

Words of blessing are also central to Scripture.\u00a0

At least 15 of the New Testament\u2019s 27 books end with a benediction (literally, a \u201cgood word\u201d) that declares anew God\u2019s grace and peace.

What words did Leonard Nimoy hear during that synagogue service so many years ago? Here\u2019s the blessing routinely spoken by Aaron, Israel\u2019s first high priest:

The Lord bless you and keep you.<\/strong><\/em>
The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.<\/em><\/strong>
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and give you peace.<\/strong><\/em>

Think of the six gifts embodied in those three sentences.\u00a0\u00a0

God yearns to bless<\/em> you – to provide for all your needs.\u00a0 \u00a0

He promises to keep<\/em> you – to watch over you with unbroken care.\u00a0

God will cause his face to\u00a0shine upon<\/em> you.\u00a0In the ancient world, citizens had no higher aspiration than to look into the face of their king and to see a smile, an expression of welcome and acceptance.\u00a0\u00a0

God longs to be gracious<\/em> to you – to assure you there is nothing you can do to make him love you more, and nothing you can do to make him love you less.

He will lift up his countenance upon you –<\/em> or as Eugene Peterson memorably translates this phrase in The Message<\/em>, “will look you full in the face.”\u00a0He gives us the gift of his complete attention.

God promises you\u00a0peace<\/em> – not the absence of chaos or trouble, but his own shalom<\/em> that can see you through the darkest day.\u00a0\u00a0

These are God’s life-giving words.

And they can even become the words by which we bless others.\u00a0

We don\u2019t have to extend our arms like Aaron, nor offer the Vulcan salute like Spock. We don\u2019t even have to say anything out loud.

But something happens when we approach other human beings and, in the quietness of our hearts, extend to them God’s blessings.\u00a0“Lord, may this woman know your grace today.\u00a0Help this teenager be convinced that you care for him.\u00a0Guide me to become a vessel of your peace to everyone I meet.”\u00a0\u00a0

When we choose to speak aloud words of encouragement instead of criticism, and to lift someone up instead of tearing them down, we may be doing something we don’t even recognize.

By God’s grace, we\u2019re pronouncing a benediction, a good word, a profound declaration of blessing.

And by means of such words we may be changing all of somebody\u2019s tomorrows \u2013 and helping them boldly go where they have never gone before.
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here One of the most iconic elements of the Star Trek universe came about because a Jewish boy dared to sneak a peek at a sacred moment. During the filming of the 1967 (original series) episode \u201cAmok Time,\u201d Leonard Nimoy, who played Spock \u2013 the half-human, half-Vulcan science officer of the USS… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4752,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[959,281,960],"class_list":["post-4751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-aaronic-blessing","tag-blessing","tag-star-trek"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4751"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4753,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4751\/revisions\/4753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}