I don’t know where the year has gone. I started this post a couple of months ago, intending to share it sometime before Christmas, and then I forgot. Yesterday I remembered, so I bumped what I had planned for today to next month.

It has taken the world by storm. A simple song that has become perhaps the biggest hit of 2020 – and yet it is quite possible you have never heard it.

I have no idea how many languages it has been recorded in, how many musicians have participated in making the many versions floating out there. In a time of social distancing, “The Blessing” has become a symbol of collaboration.

So today, as we wind down the year, a number of different versions of the same song. Each “group” does it differently, makes the song their own. Yet it is something that has been shared across national and cultural boundaries

Since March The Blessing has circled the globe more times than I can count. I have a soft spot for the Canadian version (above) because some people I know took part. It was so exiting to see how musicians from across the country came together to make beautiful music. Technology allowed them to come together when pandemic restrictions kept them apart.

I remember first hearing the song in a German version at the end of a Germany-wide prayer event in April, with more than 250,000 people joining together online . Even though it wasn’t my mother tongue it blew me away with its message. It helps that it is musically catchy too.

In the Middle East, musicians from countries that are officially at war with each other came together to share it as a message of peace.

If you search online you will find other versions than the ones I am sharing today. I’m just offering up a few of my favorites. You may be motivated to record and upload your own version. If you do, let me know so I can check it out.

I’ve limited myself to a half dozen or so versions today. If you have a favorite that I haven’t included, put the link in the comments section. There are hundreds to choose from at this point.

It has been a challenging year for so many, individually and collectively. “The Blessing” has been an oasis of peace and hope on sometimes cloudy days. I hope it has been a blessing to you today.