In this week’s reading we are meeting up with Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, while he is on the run. He has tricked his brother out of his birthright and he has tricked his father out of the blessing that was not intended for him. Jacob knows he’s in hot water. Under threat of death from Esau, with nothing but the shirt on his back, Jacob lays down in the desert, head on a stone pillow, hoping he will see the morning. Instead what he sees in his dreams is a stairway between heaven and earth, heavily populated by angelic messengers, and lo and behold, the God of the Covenant standing right beside him. When he wakes up, Jacob’s life is changed forever.
- What does this interaction tell us about our belief about the struggles we face as human beings, and God’s relationship to us in the midst of them?
- How does this change how we might relate to one another when a person we care about appears to have hit “rock bottom”?
What is faithful and true might not be the dominant narrative with which we are familiar.
Maybe we’re overdue to ditch the notion of letting people “hit rock bottom”.
Associated Scripture: Genesis 27:1-4,15-23; 28:10-17