The Unexpected Line at the Music Festival
Not the band, but the tent for the Mother’s and Father’s Blessing. You come receive, too.
When I met my mentor Bob Perry, he told me about Love Reach.
A team of several hundred believers will go and minister to the 80,000 people who come to the Bonnaroo Music Festival, which usually takes place in June outside of Nashville. People camp on the 800 acre area, and enjoy music and vendors with tents.
The believers set up one tent about dream interpretation.
They set up another for face painting.
They set up one for the mother’s blessing, where older mothers and grandmothers sit.
And they set up one for the father’s blessing, where older fathers and grandfathers sit.
A festival goer will come in, and the older person will ask, “Do you have anything you’d like to tell me, my child?”
The festival goer will say something if they wish.
And then the parent figure will say, “And now I would like to bless you in the name of Jesus.”
And then they do.
Bob said, “The tent that has—by far!—the longest line is the one for the father blessing. There’s not just a few people waiting in line. No. Scores of people wait to get in and have this father blessing.”
When I went to Christian Healing Ministries conference in Vermont in June 2019, they had a time where they had an older woman and an older man stand and pray the father and the mother blessing over us.
And it was lovely.
What I find fascinating is how much the world craves someone to listen to your story. To hear all of it. And when it’s done to say, “As messy as it was, I’m still for you. The Father is still for you. He wants good things for you. Let’s invite him to come and cleanse and renew the places that are broken.”
As a spiritual mother, if you are willing to receive this blessing from a broken mother, I would like to pray this over you.
Lord Jesus, thank you that you put us in families. Thank you that you put us together as part of the body of Christ.
I ask, Lord, for my brother, for my sister, for the places, Lord God, that are hurting, that are weary, that need your touch. Lord, I ask that you would hold them in your love. Fill them, Lord, with more of you. Pour out your spirit on each one. Let them sense anew your delight in them. Let them sense that you are for them.
Lord Jesus, you are a good brother. Holy Spirit, we thank you that you are a comforter, that you are a teacher. And Father God, we thank you that you are the good father. We thank You, Lord, that even if all we had was you, that we would still be embedded in a family. Lord, I bless my sister, I bless my brother, and ask, Lord, that this would be truly a turning point in their life, that they would go forth, blessed and with a healed heart. In the name of Jesus, amen.
Strengthen one another,
Amy Joy
P.S. You can find the incredibly beautiful Father’s Blessing and Mother’s Blessing as free downloads on the Christian Healing Ministries website. Go to “Ministry” and “Sample Prayers” at https://christianhealingmin.org/
Such amazing resources for the body of Christ.