The Beatitudes describe the ideal characteristics of Jesus’ followers. They paint a portrait of Jesus in eight strokes. We often read these Beatitudes as though they were laws, requirements for being acceptable to God. However, in truth these beatitudes describe the sort of people we become as we learn more fully to allow God to live in us. Ours is not a transactional faith, it is a covenant faith in which God has established an unbreakable relationship with every one of us.