“15 I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”
One of the greatest needs of human beings is for a secure connection to another being. If babies don’t get the physical and emotional connection that they need they either die or have severe mental and physical impairments. Jacob has been running from himself for years. He has rebelled against both God and his family. He is on his way to try to make things right with this family and he has this dream in which the Lord says these words to him. He is afraid his brother, from whom he stole the inheritance and blessing of his father, is going to kill him when they meet. He developed an elaborate plan in order to minimize the damage to his family. To protect them for his brother’s wrath he sent them on ahead of him to meet his brother. That way when his brother saw him he would be alone and perhaps his brother would only kill him and not his entire family. This man is terrified of the upcoming events and he falls asleep and has this dream. It is not a dream of terror, but on extreme comfort and reassurance. God promises to be with him. So often in our lives we are struggling to deal with feelings of separation. When couples fight the issues are really about answering the question, “Are you going to be here for me when I need you?” “Are you going to run away and leave me like so many others have?” Take a moment and read today’s verse again. Those are God’s words to us. Let them soak in. No matter what happens in our lives, the good, the bad and the ugly, God promises to be there right in the middle of it with us. Can you imagine if our spouses said these words to us in a way that we could hear the words and believe them? Wow, that would be life-changing and confidence building. Our whole inner alarm system would go from “Mega disaster on the horizon” to “everything is going to be OK”.
The Arnold Journey 