So Jacob set out from Beersheba to go to Haran to find a wife (Genesis 28:1-3, 10). In one of the places he camped along the way, he lay down on the ground with a stone for a pillow. That night he had a dream.

There’s an old Sunday School chorus we used to sing that says, “We are climbing Jacob’s ladder” – but what the biblical text actually says is that it’s the angels of God, rather than ourselves, who go up and down on the ladder Jacob saw in his dream (28:12). Then nothing more is said about the ladder or the angels: because the heart of this story is about Jacob and God.

In the dream, Jacob saw God standing over him, saying “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac” (28:13). God went on to declare that Jacob’s descendants would be more numerous than the dust on the ground, and then reiterated the universal reach of the promise give to Abraham (12:3): “all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring” (28:14). God would be present with Jacob, to make sure this happened: “Know that 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” (28:15-16).

When Jacob awoke, he said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it!” (28:16). Jacob’s surprised words work for the rest of us as well: time and again we all have discovered that the Lord is present, though we had not realized that – until we did.

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Our eyes and hearts are slow to see it, Lord: but you are there. You are in this place, and in every place, for your promise extends to every family throughout the earth – though so often we fail to recognize your presence. Teach us to lift up our hearts in worship, and to pledge ourselves to your service, always.