Bethany Lutheran Church

The first time the word bless/blessed appears in the Bible is at the start of Genesis. This one tiny word has amazing and beautiful ramifications on what it means to be human and shows us how God continues to invite us to partner with him on his mission in the world. Genesis 1:26-31 (ESV)Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”So God created man in his own image,    in the image of God he created him;    male and female he created them.And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its