The Difference Between Blessings and Baptisms
Today, we are doing a blessing, not a baptism.
A baptism is when you change someone.
A blessing is when you clear their path so that they can walk forward. A blessing is also when you connect them to the spirit of the land, their ancestors, their community and God.
A blessing is clearing the way— and connecting to what matters.
Bowl of Light
In Hawaiian culture, there is a belief that each child has at birth a Bowl of Light.
If she tends her Light it will grow in strength and she can do all things— swim with the shark, fly with the birds, know and understand all things.
If, however, she becomes envious or jealous, she drops a stone into her Bowl of Light and some of the Light goes out. Light and the stone cannot hold the same space. If she continues to put the stones in the Bowl of Light, the Light will go out and she will become a stone.
A stone does not grow, nor does it move.
If at any time she tires of being a stone, all she needs to do is turn the bowl upside down and the stones will fall away and—
the light will grow once more.
Easter Light
On Easter Sunday, Jesus took humanity’s Bowl of Light—
He turned it upside down and all at once, the stones fell away so that the light of humanity could grow once more.
Easter Sunday reminds us that we were born perfect. There is nothing we need to do or change.
Like Thomas reminds us each Sunday, we just have to be the way we were born to be— a bowl of perfect light.
Your only task is to tend to your Bowl of Light.
