God Will Be With You
“Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.”
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I enjoy traveling to see different places and learn about the lives of people in different times in history. A few years ago, Jan and I celebrated our 40th anniversary with a river cruise in Germany. It seemed like every hill overlooking the river had a castle on top.
I loved the scenery and history, but what was important was who I was with, not what we saw or did. Who we travel with in life is more important than where we go or what we do on the journey. When a young man named Jacob realized that truth it changed how he lived.
Jacob was running. To hear his mother tell the tale, he had merely gone back to her old homeland to find a wife. But we know better. Instigated by his mother, he tricked his blind father Isaac to give to him the blessing that rightfully was his brother’s. When he left on the run, his mother covered for him.
Jacob was away from home and alone in a strange land. He had good reason to be afraid for his life. He was vulnerable to robbers, wild animals, or injury, and even more vulnerable to the anger of his brother.
He stopped to rest one night, using a stone as his pillow, but sleep would not come to him. Perhaps it was his fear or his guilt that kept him awake. He had run from his past but he couldn’t hide from himself. Nor could he hide from God.
How often have you been like Jacob, running from mistakes of the past? Jacob dreamed he was not alone in that desolate place. His dream was as real as the fear, guilt, and disappointment it replaced.
In his dream, he saw a stairway connecting earth and heaven, connecting Jacob to God. God stood at the top of the stairs and spoke to Jacob. “I will be with you,” God said. “I will go before you. I will watch over you. I will bring you home.”
Jacob, the trickster, heard from God the undeserved promises of God’s presence, protection, comfort, and hope. Each of us has had moments like Jacob when we run away from our past mistakes and painful memories. In those times of denial and despair God offers us a most important gift, the gift of God’s presence.
Where do you find yourself today? Is there a past mistake or painful memory you are running away from, trying to deny and forget? Remember those words of God to you, “I am with you. I will watch over you. I will not leave you. I will bring you home.”
God is with us. Like Jacob we are undeserving of God’s presence. Like Jacob our lives are filled with mistakes and painful memories. Yet, like Jacob, God has promised to bring us home, and to meet us with forgiveness and grace. Home is more than a place. Home is the presence of God who is with us.
I am with you. I will watch over you wherever you go. I will not leave you. I will bring you home. The promise of God’s presence is a promise of grace and hope. No matter where our journeys have been, or where they will go, God was, is, and will be with us.
Practice
Find a journal or some paper. Ponder these questions and write your answers.
Imagine what Jacob must have felt like as he ran for his life away from his home. Have you ever felt that way in your life?
Is there something in your past that you want to remain hidden out of sight, out of mind, out of memory?
Imagine how Jacob felt when he heard God’s promise to be with him, to watch over him, to never leave him, and to bring him home.
What promise of God do you need to hear to find forgiveness, grace, and healing?
Greg Smith
Legacy Ministry for Older Adults