Tuesday Scripture: Genesis 28
The Lord is Here (and I didn't know it)
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Jacob had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven.
Above it stood the Lord, and he said:
I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac.
I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.
When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought,
Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.
How awesome is this place!
This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.
Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it.
He called that place Bethel (the house of God).
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Jacob didn't get it.
He thought the PLACE was magical.
But God didn't say the place was awesome.
God said he loved Jacob and was going to make HIM awesome.
Jacob built a tower to mark the spot and promised to return there--when he was ready.
It took God a long time to convince him:
Jacob didn't need a special PLACE to see God.
What made the place special was that--perhaps for the first time in his life--he quit trying to work his angle long enough to listen to God.
There's nothing wrong with having a special place where you listen to God.
There's nothing wrong with putting up a nice building and a high steeple to mark the spot.
But in 2020 while worship is so difficult--and so many of us yearn to get back to that special place--maybe God is reminding us that it's not the place that makes faith special.
Jacob was a rascal and a hoodoo.
He found it really hard to believe that God could love someone like himself.
It was easier to believe he had found a magical place.
Is it so hard to believe God might love a rascal like you or me?
That everywhere we lay our head is a special place because God loves us right where we are?
Maybe that's the message for 2020.
God loves you wherever you are--God thinks YOU are special.
No matter where you pause to listen to God, you are right where God wants you to be.