The Promise of Presence
Scripture Reading
“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 have promised you."
– Genesis 28:15Read the rest: Genesis 28:10-19a
Reflection
I enjoy traveling to see different places and learn about the lives of people in different times in history. Last year 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 alongside 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. He had just tricked his blind father Isaac to give to him the blessing that rightfully was his brother’s. His mother was the instigator of this deception. She covered for him when he left on the run.
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. He discovered he couldn’t hide from God.
How often have you been like Jacob? He was running from his 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. 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 given through our Lord Jesus Christ. No matter where our journeys have been, or where they will go, God was, is, and will be with us.
Exercise
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?
Prayer
Sometimes, O God, we feel like Jacob the trickster, running for our lives. We run from our past, from our mistakes and misdeeds, from our grasping and greed, trying to deny harsh reality. But, the journey away from the shadows of our soul is a hard journey, and we must rest. The hardness of the stone on which we rest is a reminder of the hardness of our lives.
Is it the hardness of life that finally cracks the hard shell around our hearts?
In the darkness of our nights, you come. When we are running from ourselves, you find us. When we rest our heads on the hard stone of our lives, you speak to our fear and despair.
We hear your words, given as balm to heal our wounds. We hear your voice, as silent music to our souls. We hear your promise that calls us from our self-interested striving back to all that nurtures and truly blesses us, to family and community.
Your word is food for our lonely and fearful spirits, malnourished of the presence of your love. “I am with you. I will watch over you. I will not leave you. I will bring you home.”
God of grace in our grief, you are with us. God of our hopeless wandering, you will watch over us. God of presence in our loneliness, you will not leave us. God of assurance in our uncertainty, you will bring us home.
“I am with you. I will watch over you. I will not leave you. I will bring you home.”
On the stone pillow my heart opened to your comforting word. In the dark night of my soul, the light of your presence shone brightly. In the valley of the shadow, you brought me to the other side. In the hard futility of my running, you gave me rest on the hard stone.
Surely, O Lord, you are with me in this hard place.
Amen.
Greg Smith, Director of Legacy Ministry, First Baptist Church Decatur