Today's Daily Lesson comes from Genesis chapter 28 verses 10 through 17:
10 Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. 11 And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. 12 And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! 13 And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring. 14 Your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south, and in you and your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 Behold, 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.” 16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17 And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”
Poet-farmer and conservationist Wendell Berry says, "Things take place."
Scriptures says Jakob had come to "a certain place" that night of his mysterious dream. He was in a certain place when and where the LORD visited him. That place Jakob named "Bethel" -- meaning the "House of God".
It is fashionable to laugh and scoff today at the idea of a "House of God". For what house or building can hold God? Can the mortal hold immortality? The temporal, the eternal? Wood and stone, spirit? We shake our heads and grin mockingly, "Of course not. How presumptuous. How pre-modern. How ancient."
And yet it is true; things do take place.
An old Vermont meeting house with creaking floor and sagging plaster houses a Spirit beyond the spirit of the age. The 700-year-old glass of a medieval church gives glimpse to a faith that weathers the current storm, administration, or war -- the original pillars of the place still standing over a thousand years, the foundation still firm, and prayers still being uttered. A grandmother's house, the smell of her hotcakes wafting from out of the kitchen the sure fragrance of God's love and God's house.
"Surely the LORD is in this place and I did not know it," Jakob said.
And if in this certain place, then perhaps any place. Perhaps every place.
Perhaps even in our place now.
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