JACOBS DREAM(from Genesis 28:10-16 in the Bible):
“Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway. At the top of the stairway stood the LORD, and he said, “I am the LORD, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.” Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!””
You can feel it in your bones- sometimes when you stop for a moment, it's like life is the stairway that you just never stop climbing, this ladder that goes on forever without end.
You have this list of failures that stretch from earth up to heaven and they are like the rungs on a ladder, it's like all your rest just feels like lying down on one unforgiving stone.
Sometimes you're just the most tired of trying to be strong.
You have these Jacob dreams, and you dream of what might be.
But the most amazing dream that is reality and not a dream at all is that there are no ladders to climb up because Christ came down one to get you.
Jesus Christ himself interprets the dream: "I tell you the truth, you will see all heaven open and the angels of God going up and down on the Son of Man, the one who is the stairway between heaven and earth."(John 1:51)
Jesus doesn't show you the steps to get to heaven- Jesus IS the steps to heaven.
Jesus doesn't merely come down to show you the way up-Jesus comes down to make Himself into the Way to carry you up.
Jesus doesn't ultimately give you a how-to, because Christianity is not about that- it's not about How, it is about WHO.
Every religion, every program, every self-help book, is about steps you have to take. Jesus is the only one who becomes the step TO TAKE YOU.
To take us- The Jacobs, The tired, The debtors, and the desperate. To take US, who are the lost and a long way from arriving, US, who are the bone weary of all the trying and the striving.
Christ becomes the one step that we can never take-and takes us. He comes to us like he comes to Jacob-he comes to us not in spite of our failings, but Because of them. He is the God who is drawn to those who feel down. He is the God who is attracted to those who feel abandoned. He is the God who is bound to those who feel broken.
Everywhere there are stairways for the sinners, everywhere- ladders for the lost, and everywhere-gateways to God.
This is Grace. This is the reason to slow down, this is not to be missed.
How sad to make this Christmas time and his coming profane, to make it about fleshly performances, frantic running around and rushing, preoccupations, etc.
Profanity, writes Elisabeth Elliot, is "treating as meaningless that which is freighted with meaning. Treating as common that which is hallowed. Regarding as a mere triviality what is really a divine design. Profanity is failure to see the inner mystery."
You know we could slow and cease this profanity and see the inner mystery here. We could begin the "slow Christmas." We could set aside the to do lists that profane the inner mysteries and slow to see the weight of glory in the moment- The divine design of a day that unfolds with a Grace that is not to be missed.
The hallowed here.
Because being hurried always empties our souls.....
God doesn't want to number your failures or count your accomplishments as much as he wants you to have an encounter with him.
The only ladder over you is Love-and Love came down.
If, just for a moment, if you stand in the doorway-linger a bit in front of the tree- it's strange how you can see it--how every Christmas tree is a ladder, and Jesus is your ladder who hung on that tree.....so you can have the gift of rest.
When you are wrung out, that is the sign you've been reaching for rungs.
The work at the very heart of salvation, is the work of the very heart of Christmas: simply rest.
This rest, this stopping, this being in the here and now- is holy.
The wonder of all this is that God looks at you at your lowest and loves you all the way up to the sky. Grace carries you all the way home.
