Gotta Be Here Somewhere (Friday Devotional)

“Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’”

-       Genesis 28:16

Have you ever ‘lost’ something, only to discover, much to your embarrassment, that you actually had it on you the whole time? Maybe you were searching your house from top to bottom for your glasses, only to bump into something and watch them fall off your head. Or perhaps you were frantically digging through drawers for your keys, only to hear them jingle in the purse you were sure you had already checked. Or maybe, at the height of absentmindedness, you were gathering all your things together and couldn’t find your phone, no matter where you looked—until you looked in your hand, that is (that last one happened to me one early morning this week!) It’s amazing how, when we’re rushed and overwhelmed, we lose track of things we actually had all along.

That’s exactly what seems to have happened to Jacob with God in Genesis 28. Having cheated his twin brother out of his rightful inheritance, he had fled from his family and his old life, fearful of the repercussions of his deceit. Traveling by himself, his only hope was the vague potential of security in his uncle’s household. He was a foreigner traveling through strange lands, a wanderer with nothing familiar to cling to. He was, simply put, more alone than he’d ever been. So when he lay his head down on a rock that night to sleep, he must have assumed that, along with his family and friends, he had also left behind the God of his fathers. What would such a God want with him now?

Yet when he drifted off to sleep, he dreamed of a stairway reaching all the way to heaven, with angels climbing up and down it. As he stared in awe at this structure, the voice of God boomed forth, assuring Jacob that the covenant He had made with Jacob’s family still stood, that God would remain faithful in spite of Jacob’s faithlessness. When Jacob awoke, he could only conclude one thing: “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” So overwhelmed with his predicament, so sure of his isolation, he had failed to remember that God would always be with him.

In our own busy lives, sometimes we forget this too. You can make the same mistake with God that you make with your glasses, keys, and phone—so overwhelmed by everything flying at you, you can start to think God is missing when, in reality, He was with you all along. When life is at its most stressful and you start to wonder if God is absent, remember His promise to never leave nor forsake you, remember that even when you are fickle God remains faithful. When you are looking around in bewilderment wondering why God abandoned you, ask who is more likely to have gotten lost. He didn’t leave, you just took your eyes off Him.