Genesis 28
The Dream at Bethel
"Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it." (Genesis 28:16)
Jacob was running from his brother, sleeping on the ground with a rock for a pillow, alone and afraid. And God showed up in a dream.
A staircase from earth to heaven. Angels ascending and descending. And God standing above it, saying: I am with you. I will not leave you.
Jacob woke up and said: surely God was in this place and I didn’t know it.
That’s one of the most important sentences in Genesis. Because Jacob was not in a church, not in a moment of worship, not in a posture of spiritual readiness. He was in the worst moment of his life, fleeing consequences he’d created, sleeping on the ground. And God was there.
I’ve assumed that the quality of my spiritual experience depends partly on my own preparation and readiness. That God shows up more clearly when I’ve done the work to create the right conditions. And sometimes that’s true. But Jacob’s encounter happened when he had nothing and was nowhere particularly sacred.
God is in more places than we expect. The surprise is usually ours, not His.
