Daily devotional · February 8
God Was Here All Along
“Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder. And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob woke up, he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was unaware of it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven!””
Jacob was running from his brother, alone, with a stone for a pillow. Nothing about that night looked holy. Yet he dreamed of a stairway between earth and heaven, and God promised to be with him and to keep him. When he woke, his reaction was astonishment: God is in this place, and I did not know it. Many of us treat God as absent during our hard chapters, waiting to meet him at church, on a good day, or when things improve. Jacob's story says the wilderness can be a doorway. God does not wait for us to be presentable. Today, pause in a place you consider ordinary, your car, your kitchen, your desk. Say aloud, God, you are here. Then spend two minutes in stillness, and thank him for one way he has kept you.
Prayer
Lord, open my eyes to see that You are here, in every ordinary place. Amen.