Blessing Bubbles

I was concluding a morning walk a few days ago. The course involved ascending and descending hills as well as flat terrain, but it was hot, approaching noon. As I began the last uphill leg of my walk along a paved pathway near where I live, I stopped to sit on a park bench and rest for a moment. Just below me down a slope on a school playground was a group of children and two adults directing them in some games. One cluster were blowing bubbles—really big soap bubbles.

One of the children had a large bubble wand and when she dipped it into the bubble mixture and pirouetted, she produced a profusion of large shiny bubbles. The large ones were so heavy they floated slowly and were easy for the children to chase and puncture. Every time one of the children produced an impressive mass of bubbles, they would all cheer and shout.

It was fun to watch as I rested. On one occasion the children produced a mass of bubbles that were just the right size to float above their heads. The bubbles were picked up by a breeze and floated up the slope, just over my head where they popped silently—simply vanishing from sight.

A thought gave me a chuckle. I imagined that as the child produces the bubbles and they all shouted in joy, that a small bit of the shout got locked into the bubbles. Then when those bubbles passed over my head, I thought if they were close enough, I could hear their joy-filled shout as each bubble released the sound when in popped. I said I had been walking in the sun.

Rested. I pushed onward and upward, but the thought stayed with me and I realized that it was actually possible to send joy in a bubble. Not a soap and water bubble, but a bubble all the same. And maybe not so much a bubble of joy, but a blessing.

In my time as a pastor, I did many blessings, and I have come to see that they are real. Blessings are real things, not just symbolic. You see, life in the spirit makes it clear that actions we take in the material world are like rocks dropped into a pond—the effect moves outward and we don’t always know when or whom it will reach. What we do in the material world has spiritual implications.

A quick word to say what I mean about spirit. I believe that the material universe is a creation of the spiritual. By spiritual, I don’t mean religious. That’s something totally different entirely. In Genesis the word picture is of God speaking the material universe into being. I think that’s close enough. The spiritual is the more fundamental reality and our physical world is a manifestation of it, not the other way around. I am finishing my novel, Spirit Code to explain this better.

You can experiment with it. An act of kindness or thoughtfulness that you turn loose will have an impact on someone. Simple enough, but those blessing bubbles have real life consequences, often life-changing consequences. The kid to whom no one pays attention has you to take notice and pay a complement. That kind of thing changes lives. And it’s so simple. It’s the spirit that takes an act and transforms it into a force.

Do the unexpected. Write a letter; remember those? Write to someone thanking them for something they did for you, or just because you admire them. Pick someone who needs to hear it and maybe doesn’t that often. Volunteer to help someone you know needs a hand—the list is endless. The thing is, you may never see the consequences, but you might! You’ve read about that sort of thing in inspirational stories. So, here’s a chance to the hero of your own story.

Send some blessing bubbles and repeat. And repeat. And have faith. Nothing done with love in the physical real is ever lost.