God's Living...where?

"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." Genesis 28:17

God's Living...where?
By Rev. William Dohle

My daughter has entered the age of pictures. She draws pictures for everything!

Yesterday, Valentine's Day, she had a valentine for everyone. More than one for some of us. On each one there was a picture of our family and her words, written in perfect 1st grader pen. "I love... William, Matthew, Mom, and Dad."

Lynne has a picture for everything!

Tell her to draw her family...and she'll draw us in all our splendor.
Tell her to draw her home...and she'll draw her house.
Tell her to draw the house of God...and she'll draw a picture of her church.

We all have simple images like her in our mind, even as adults. Certain words bring certain images to mind. Just play a game of "Word Association" to discover this to be true.

But what if you were wrong? What if the image you have in your mind doesn't fully describe or contain what the word truly means.

Take this word for example: House of God. In Hebrew the word is : Beth-el. Which means, literally, house of God.

If asked what this means, most of us might draw a church. A building of God. Something with a steeple on it. Something holy.

But what if we're wrong? What if the House of God is someplace surprising?

It certainly was surprising to Jacob. Running away from his brother in the wilderness, living in a foreign land, Jacob lies down on a stone. And there he has a dream. Or rather a vision.

A stairway extends upward into heaven from the place he is laying. And on that stairway the angels of God are ascending and decending on it. And above it stands the Lord who, once again, blesses Jacob saying to him, among other things, "I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go..."

Jacob, awakening from the dream, looks down in shock. Here he was laying in the house of God, in Beth-el, and didn't even know it! He exclaims, "Surely the Lord is in the place and I was not aware of it!"

Of course even after his vision, Jacob doesn't really get it. He sets up a pillar and says : "...this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house."

He still doesn't understand the promise. For God hasn't promised to stay in Beth-el, but to travel with Jacob wherever he goes. And wherever he goes, that becomes the House of God!

We too might fall into Jacob's trap. We think that our congregation, our denomination, our church holds the House of God within it. We "go to church" and "enter the house of God" not realizing that God's house is wherever we are. And where we go, God goes.

So... we go home from church and to our favorite resteraunt, and that becomes God's house.
We travel from there to Target, and that too becomes God's house.
We go home, to our quiet abode, and that too becomes God's house.

Wherever we go, that place becomes God's house, holy because the children of God are there!

If we take this to heart and to its logical conclusion, even places we think are "outside God's house" become dwelling places for God.

The bar we frequent on Friday nights?? Yes! That is God's house.
The theater we attend?? Absolutely! God's house!
Even the cabin or lake that we retreat from life to?? Yes! That too is God's house!

God's house is indeed wherever we are. For, in Christ, God has promised us, as he promised Jacob long ago: "I am with you and will watch over you, wherever you go."

Father in heaven, we thank you for your presence that is always with us and constantly sustaining us. Open our eyes that we might see your presence among us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.