The God of Our Dreams

Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place—and I did not know it!”   Genesis 28:16

                                                        "Sulam Yaakov"                                   Geula Twersky

While it is easy for us to imagine God being with us at all times, in Jacob’s day, the people believed God was far less accessible. God was in a pillar of fire, atop Mt. Sinai, or behind the richly decorated curtains in the Temple, in the place called the “holy of holies.”

Jacob, having stolen his older brother’s birthright and having tricked his father into giving him a blessing, was on the run. He ran away toward Haran, the city where Abraham’s ancestors had once settled. He was road weary, and fearful of his brother’s wrath, so he lay down for the night in the middle of the desert, and rested his head upon a rock.

In his dream, God came to him and Jacob received God’s assurance that God’s mercy, grace, and protection would surround him for the remainder of his life. The Covenant was intact. While Jacob was running away from God, afraid of punishment for the duplicity with which he had defrauded his father and his brother, God followed him and reassured him.

What about us? Certainly most of us have acted in ways that fall short of the glory of God.  Some of us may have felt such shame that we have run from God or ignored God while intentionally choosing the wrong path.  This story reminds us that no matter where we have gone, and how far we have traveled, the gates of heaven are always open to us. There is no place beyond the reach of God, and no hiding place so secure that God will not find us there. 

Thanks be to God.