Bless This House

The custom of blessing homes at the New Year is part of church history. Families make blessings as simple or intricate as they like, asking for God’s blessing on their home and on all who live there and those who visit. We invite Jesus to be present in our home, to be a listener to each conversation, a guide for troubled times, and a blessing in times of thanksgiving.

One blessing tradition is “chalking the door” or the door step. In the Old Testament the Israelites marked their doors with the blood of the lamb on the night of the Passover to ensure that the angel of death would pass them by. Deuteronomy 6:9 says that we shall “write [the words of God] on your heart; and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, - . . . - and you shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.”

This New Year, we take a piece of chalk, mark 20 + C + M + B + 14 above our front door saying, “The three Wise Men, Caspar, Melchior, and Balthasar followed the star of God’s Son who became human two thousand fourteen years ago. Christ, bless this house and all who inhabit it. Remain with us throughout the New Year. Amen.”

We use chalk as it is made of the substance of the earth. It is used by teachers to instruct and by children to play. As the image of the chalk fades, let us will remember this blessing, transferring it to our hearts and our habits.