We’re all familiar with the song “Jacob’s Ladder”. In Chapter 1 of God is Closer Than You Think, author John Ortberg states that the song gets the story wrong. The ladder isn’t for human beings to climb up, it’s for God to come down. God still is in the business of coming down to earth. Any place can become Bethel- “the house of God, the place where God is present”.
Following Jacob’s encounter with God, his life began to change- but not all at once. God’s presence doesn’t exempt us from problems or character flaws. Jacob takes the enormous risk of reconciling with his brother Esau after a whole childhood of living as enemies and two decades of separation. When Jacob meets Esau, he makes what Pastor Ortberg considers one of the great statements of Scripture: “For to see your face is like seeing the face of God.”- Genesis 33:10
Pastor Ortberg concludes that once we experience God’s presence, we’ll never be the same:
“Once you see God in an ordinary moment at an ordinary place, you never know where he’ll show up next. You could start seeing him anywhere- even in the face of someone who’s been your enemy for twenty years.”
