Christian Reflections

Have you ever gone through a period in your life when you just felt like dropping everything and running away to a place where nobody knows you? We all have. Some people feel this because of a past they can’t get over with, some because of guilt that never goes away while others because of a general feeling of meaninglessness.

You are not alone. Jacob went through a similar situation. After stealing his brother’s birthright blessing, he knew he had to run away until his brother was not feeling murderous anymore. What started as a temporary change of address became permanent estrangement. He never got to see his parents again. (Gen. 27: 41-45)

But something happened to Jacob that totally changed his world. He met God in his wanderings. He didn’t mean to. He didn’t go out to seek the God of his father, in fact, he was running away from family when it happened.

But God has a way of knowing our deepest needs. He hears our hearts’ cry even when we don’t know it. Then He meets us in our crossroads. It is such a comfort to know that even when we sin against God and run away from what is right, he would still meet us in the road to give us new meaning, new life, new start. “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” This verse has always been true even in the Old Testament.

Have you been planning to run away lately? Maybe you don’t need to. For it is not new surroundings or people or routines that change us. It is the change of our hearts when we encounter God that truly gives us a fresh start wherever we might be.