By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons, and worshiped as he leaned on the top of his staff.
Hebrews 11:20-21 (NIV)
Leaning on His Staff
Two painters on a scaffold barely off the sidewalk, working the cornice of a building that used to be a bank and is a dental practice now. The old one cuts the line freehand where the stone meets the render, no tape, no chalk, and it comes out straighter than the stone.
The young one gave his notice. Friday’s his last day and he’s going to his brother-in-law’s landscaping outfit for better money and a truck of his own. He said it on Monday and hasn’t brought it up since.
The old man has one more thing worth handing over, how you load a brush for a long line so it doesn’t starve halfway, and he’s been carrying it around all week looking for a place to set it down. They do the whole cornice and the return over the entrance. Nobody asks and he doesn’t offer.
Two fathers blessing a future, and one of them is dying while he does it. Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau in regard to their future. Jacob, dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and worshiped leaning on the top of his staff. The writer of Hebrews puts both of those on his list of faith.
Isaac blessed both his sons, and the two of them went in directions nobody could fit on one page. The blessing gets called faith all the same. Isaac gets credit for the blessing he gave, and he gave it to both of them.
I find the staff beautiful. He’s dying, he blesses each of Joseph’s sons, and then he worships with his weight on the top of his staff.
The young one comes off the ladder with his brushes in the bucket, says he’ll see everybody tomorrow, and goes down the block toward the van. The old man stays on the boards with the light going yellow on the render, working the last eight feet of the return, where nobody on the sidewalk is ever going to look.
A Prayer to Remember
I’d like to see how it comes out, Lord. I’ve held a good word back until somebody earned it, and I’ve wanted to be standing there when the answer came. Isaac blessed both his sons, and Jacob blessed grandsons while he was dying. Give me some of that, and let me speak a blessing I won’t be there to see land.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
