So… remember in Genesis 28:16 when Jacob awoke from his dream in which he saw the stairway to heaven and marveled, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it… How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.” (NIV).
In her book One Thousand Gifts, Ann Voskamp notes of that story:
“Thanks makes now a sanctuary”
How lovely and true. Jacob was now thankful, so he built a sanctuary in the last place he expected to.
In fact…
Where was Jacob? In the desert. Not where he wanted to be.
What was he doing? Leaving the place he’d called home. Probably not what he wanted to be doing.
So Jacob was doing the thing he didn’t want to do — in the place he didn’t want to be — and he was alone.
Except he wasn’t.
He had a dream that awakened him to the magnificent spiritual reality of what was really happening around him.
And he woke up, and the sucky ground he lay on was now so sacred to him that he made a sanctuary of thanks.
And so, Voskamp notes, we could be in an awful place, doing something awful, feeling something awful, and yet be completely unaware that this is, in fact, holy ground and that the most wonderful things are happening around us.
If we could literally see Christ and hear him promise us the wonder of heaven, we would wake up the next morning and say, “Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it” and that spot would be the holiest of grounds for us the rest of our lives.
I know that’s hard to grasp — that Christ is here and here for us, but as Raneiro Cantalamessa spoke in a Good Friday sermon.
“Do we really believe that God loves us? No, we don’t really believe it, or at least not strongly enough! If we were to believe it, everything — our lives, ourselves, things, and events — absolutely everything would be transfigured before our eyes.”
Then he adds: “This very day we would be with him in paradise, for paradise is simply rejoicing in God’s love.”
I know it’s hard.
It’s hard to believe that kind of love — just as it must have been hard for Jacob to understand when he went to bed that night.
But it’s true.
So, if you could, stop what you’re doing and just do this.
Close your eyes, and think of the fact that the Lord truly “is in YOUR place” and you and I are not aware of it.
What was happening around Jacob is happening around you.
And maybe, as we think about that with our eyes shut, we can say: “Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it.”
My place right now – I have Miralax to my left (osmotic stimulant laxative), and a Boost drink to my right, and a toilet close by. That’s my physical ground right now. Could be way way worse, could be better, but what strikes me is how routine and dull it is.
But surely the Lord is in this place. He is! I have no clue what’s even happening around me. But it’s all beautiful.
And if I could see it, I’d build a sanctuary here too. So right now, I’m trying to put stones on top of each other as I write, to thank God for being here.
You’re in a different spot, and it could be much worse. Or, it could be so predictably stale.
But you probably aren’t thinking, “Surely the Lord is in this place.” But he is. Right with you. Making the same promise of blessing to you that he did to Jacob.
[Drawing: Jacob’s Ladder, Blake]
