I grew up with the Mizpah Benediction and always loved it, “”The Lord watch between you and me, when we are absent one from the other. ” (NRSV)

Of course, when we read on, it is a father telling his son-in-law, “You better treat my daughters well or else … and let’s keep our distance from each other. God is watching.”

Yet, though the element of warning is there, it is also a word of reconciliation and peace..

It is a statement of putting another person in God’s hands.

We are always coming and we are always going.

We are parting and we are reuniting.

Yet, we are always somehow, connected.

And it is covenant that keeps us connected and benediction that invokes God’s blessing.

Here is another.