Christian Reflections

I’m not quite done obsessing over Jacob’s life so bear with me with this yet another post about his misadventures. I was actually planning to write a blog series entitled BEFORE THEY WERE HEROES, making observations about the lives of the big names in the Bible before they became what we remember them to be. But since I’m such a lousy writer, I ended up not doing that project.

It’s interesting really, taking a second look at the ordinary lives of the men who became the prominent figures of the Christian faith, the people whose lives the Bible keeps referring to over and over again. Were they really that great and awesome and popular in their times? The answer is a staggering NO.

Jacob, as I mentioned twice already (why am I repeating myself too often?), was not an all around nice guy. Many could identify with that. What stuck me this morning when I opened the Bible is that it didn’t take one minute of his waking hours to believe in God. Literally. Why? Because he started believing when he was asleep. He dreamed of God and he woke up a believer.

Sure he’s heard about “the God of his fathers” but his personal, one to one relationship with God started in his sleep. How many of us can top that? Some people stumble over the truth and walk away still not believing. Jacob dreamed of the truth and woke up a believer. No wonder he was such a big name in the Bible. His faith was so quick and so raw that it changed his fortunes from a runaway dude to a respectable father of a large clan. What’s more, today we hear of God being referred to as “the God of Abraham, Isaac and JACOB.” Cool, right?