God of unlimited power, pour our Your richest blessings as needed in the life of this dear reader; in Christ Jesus I pray, amen.
Our text for today comes from Genesis 28: 10 Jacob left Beersheba and went to Haran. 11 He came to a certain place and camped for the night since the sun had set. He took one of the stones there, set it under his head and lay down to sleep. 12 And he dreamed: A stairway was set on the ground and it reached all the way to the sky; angels of God were going up and going down on it. 13 Then God was right before him, saying, "I am God, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. I'm giving the ground on which you are sleeping to you and to your descendants. 14 Your descendants will be as the dust of the Earth; they'll stretch from west to east and from north to south. All the families of the Earth will bless themselves in you and your descendants. 15 Yes. I'll stay with you, I'll protect you wherever you go, and I'll bring you back to this very ground. I'll stick with you until I've done everything I promised you." 16 Jacob woke up from his sleep. He said, "God is in this place - truly. And I didn't even know it!" 17 He was terrified. He whispered in awe, "Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. This is God's House. This is the Gate of Heaven." 18 Jacob was up first thing in the morning. He took the stone he had used for his pillow and stood it up as a memorial pillar and poured oil over it. 19 He christened the place Bethel (God's House). The name of the town had been Luz until then. (The Message)
Ladder? Stairway? Escalator? Okay, no biblical versions that I'm aware of mention an escalator, but the movies do. I'm talking about Jacob's dream and how God revealed so much to this young man during that night. Verse 12 tells us he dreamed of a stairway from the ground to the sky and he could see angels going up and coming down on it. The comedian says, "An escalator? Do we go through a mall on the way to Heaven? Can I stop off at Orange Julius on the way?" The song wouldn't be the same if we had to force in "escalator" for "ladder." And then you'd have to change the words from "We are climbing Jacob's ladder" to "We are riding Jacob's escalator." Nah. Doesn't work. The dream got Jacob's attention and it allowed God to tell him that he was the God of his father and mother and the God of his brother and those yet to come. God's promise to Jacob was to be with him, to protect him and to guide his going out and coming back. And it was a promise of fulfillment of everything that had been promised to him. What I love are Jacob's word in this version: Incredible. Wonderful. Holy. And then he says, "this is God's house. This is the gate of Heaven." When was the last time you used any of those words to describe your church? Incredible? Probably in the sense of "It's incredible how long the sermon took!" Wonderul? "(Sarcastic tone) "It's so wonderful that so and so finally said hi to me!" Holy? "Holy cow is it 12 noon already??" I'm teasing. But think about it: These are awesome words, collectable words. I have a friend who collects words during each day, meaningful words. There's three. And, they're used to describe the awesomeness of God.
May these days leading up to your day of worship be such that you will say on that day, Incredible! Wonderful! Holy! This is God's house!
PRAYER: Loving God may the presence of Your Spirit move me to awe at Your love and compassion for me. May I prepare myself from today forward until worship time so that I might say all that Jacob said and more importantly, know like Jacob knew, that I am in Your house. I ask and pray this in the precious and powerful name of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord!
Eradio Valverde
