Precious Stones and Holy Dreams- Genesis 28

Do you ever ask yourself what you will be doing a thousand years from now? For we are all eternal beings, every single one of us.

We all have a story to tell that never ends.

Some of you are blessed so that you can bless others. And some of us are broken so that we can receive.

Today I run with Jacob.

We are learning together that stones are precious things. 

In regards to the anointing of stones, I cannot speak for anyone except myself- and my brother Jacob. You are welcome to join us if you like. Our angels are here with us- you can bring yours, too.

Yet some may see these words I write and say, who is she to speak of holy things?

No, I am not qualified. I am just another girl with a blog. Or so I have heard.

But guess what? Dear World- call me whatever you want, the King calls me Beloved. I AM ENOUGH. (Dear readers, say that with me- it's true for you, too!)

So for those who are always fleeing and never arriving, perhaps you should stop and anoint the very next blessing that you lay your weary head to rest upon.

Anything can happen in this barren place. The desert is a blank slate for God to write the story of the world.

So it’s time for Selah- a divine pause.

Some people say 'stop to smell the flowers'. But what if there are none? 

Some of us are in a desert wilderness, with only dust and dirt and rocks.

We are running away from our regrets with no destination in mind, much too busy to stop and dream or pause to anoint the stones. We run with our tears and our holy oil, clutching stolen promises to our hearts, but we have no idea what to do with them.

And we trip over rocks because we believe God logically, but emotionally we are fleeing blindly. When it comes down to our stony broken hearts, fear has become the justification for control.

We grab our blessing from Him and run like hell.

Problem is, there are angels in this place, within this wilderness, who follow after us and redeem us when we finally stop to rest. These angel guides are anointing our hard hearts with holy hope.

I can’t feel Him, I don’t see them, but when I close my eyes there is a knowing.

It’s the kind of ancient wisdom that you carry not in your head, because it does not live there, but deep in the recesses of your soul.

He is here- they are all here, looking over my shoulder as I write these words.

Hello, my angel guides. I welcome all of you.  Read my story with me.

But first you should know, dear reader, that sometimes I hold the Bible to my heart when I meditate, to join with the broken ones in Scripture who are also striving to produce something good.

Because Jacob and I, we believe a lie in our broken depths, the lie that we are only as good as what we present to the world.  We forget that we are most like our Creator when we are creating, not running.

Perhaps we are creating mosaics of sanctified stones in the desert of our hearts?

We forget that we are loved not because of what we produce, but because of who we are.

We are image bearers who have lost our shining softness. We have become hard as stone.

But God smiles down at us and says, “Be still, my child. It matters not what others say. I say that you are my creation. I say you are beloved. Stop running so I can anoint your stony heart.”

Instead of striving, always straining for more, what if we simply stopped and prayed?

But this is hard, because we are driven to either produce or consume the blessings of others. It’s the programming of our broken heritage.

God just wants us to lay down upon our heavy burdens, so that we can dream.

It’s time for Selah- a divine pause.

We cannot know how deeply we are loved until we stop running, lay still and close our eyes. Only then can we see.

And perhaps this small and insignificant gift of writing that I bring looks like nothing more than a plain, hard stone. Which it was, when I first lay my head down on it to recover. To rebel. To fight. To strive.

But this hard stone, it’s becoming sanctified.

And the angels are all watching in wonder. They gather around and glow with anticipation, pouring holy oil over the daily labor of these work-worn hands.

Did you know you have crowds of angels who follow you everywhere? They are your biggest fans.

They minister to you when you are sad, they celebrate with you when you are happy, they stand with you when you are brave. They follow fast behind you when you run. They anoint you when you become hard.

Jacob and I, we have known what it means to lay down and curl into a ball and try to become like a stone- cold, heavy, lifeless.

When you rightfully run from who you’ve been, without a doubt your demons will pursue. But you cannot stay, because what once served you is now becoming toxic.

What you once loved

is now contaminated with grief,

so it’s time to run away.

Thankfully, your angel guides are running, too.

They read with us here, leaning in closer to see Genesis 28:

⁵ So Isaac sent Jacob away.

This is how this chapter begins- with a hard farewell.

Jacob had a stolen gift- a blessing and a promise, a confiscated inheritance. He took off running with it, because it was not supposed to belong to him. He ran like his life depended on it- which it did. And he didn’t look back.

Jacob was running away from his brother, whom he hurt in order to be blessed.

This is what happened to our world when man rebelled against God- blessings became entangled with curses, fragments of good and bad all mixed together.

“God, what am I doing? Where am I going? What have I done?”

There are at least a few of us out here in the wilderness who ask this question. And I am not alone. I run alongside Jacob, that blessed thief who would someday return to be the leader of his people.

But first he had to cease striving, lay down and surrender to rest. He could not dream until he was completely still in body, mind and soul.

¹⁰ Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. ¹¹ At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. 

How weary do you have to be for a stone to feel comfortable? When your entire self-perception gets turned upside down, even a hard place looks inviting to the rampant mind.

Regret warps our judgement- rocks are mistaken for something soft and light. We turn to comfort from the wrong things.

But it’s OK, that’s normal, so God makes room for this mix-up, and his angels gather around to see what happens next.

And maybe we know

 exactly what we are running from,

 but are not sure

what we are running to.

I’m certain Jacob cried himself to sleep that night. Because when we finally stop running, our emotions catch up to us. That stone was covered with his tears.

Fear, regret, hope, desire. We run away from failure headlong into a dream.

As we lay down in the hard place, God reaches down to raise our thoughts higher, to rise above the sorrow.

¹² As Jacob slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.

Ah, I told you there were angels here. Close your eyes and see for yourself.

Disturbing wonder is the catalyst

for spiritual awakening.

God saves His best revelations for our worst moments.

When our minds settle down onto rock bottom, God turns that hard place into a foundation for building a new dream in our heart.

13 At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants.

The first thing we must do while we dream is to look up. Most people go through this life without ever looking up. Even in their dreams, their heads are down.

The hard ground we are quitting on, that is the place of revelation. Everything serves a dual purpose on this journey- it is both a physical act and a poetic metaphor.

And the duality is that our dream is about to become a reality, and the plain hard stones of our past are about to be sanctified and multiplied.

14 Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants.

What do you dream when your head hits the pillow?

Do the desires of your heart look like victory for the entire world?

Raise your thoughts higher- look up.

There is abundance in this place.

The angels gather around you now as you read these words, enraptured with your response.

  ¹⁵ What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”

Ah, but God, it is so hard to believe a promise that we don’t feel deep down in the depth of our being.

 

To believe something as great as that requires a releasing of the lies we comfort ourselves with, the stones that we pretend are pillows.

We are shedding something that is precious because we are growing up.

And as the sun rises, it dawns on us that the ones we are fleeing from are not our enemies at all, but wounded prisoners of war.

16 Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!”

The first thing we must do before we even open our eyes in the morning is remember our dreams. The ones we have carried in our heart since we were small. If we do this, then when we look around we will be filled with awestruck wonder at the simplest of things- like stones.

And yet, seeing the promises of God is also a bit like looking at a tidal wave which is headed straight for you, right where you stand in the dry desert. His blessings can be daunting and overwhelming.

They will crash over you wave after wave, so it’s best to be prepared. Start small- simply admit you are standing on hard and holy ground.

Name that desert place of dreams- call it Divine.

¹⁷ But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”

We have suppressed our emotions for so long that the very rocks within us cry out to be sanctified.

All can be made holy if we allow it.

Remember that angels follow you everywhere, crowds of them, enraptured with your every dream.

How much does God love you- don’t you know? It’s a tidal wave of blessing.

Do not let emotions get in the way of this awakening, rather let them serve it. Seek to know that the Redeemer of stony hearts is the One who loves you forever and always into eternity.

18 The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it.

What if everything we did in the next 24 hours was holy? What if every word and act and thought was sanctified today?

This is the moment for Selah- a divine pause.

Stop running and pick up a stone.

Anoint it, here and now.

Don’t hesitate.

If you don’t have holy oil, simply use your tears. It’s all the same, really.

 ¹⁹ He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”).

And we will finally admit that rocks make terrible pillows because they bring no comfort at all. Those hard and heavy things we have grown used to, like fear and anger, anxiety and grief.

But when sanctified, these hard and heavy things can become holy relics of surrender.

We will forget our pain when our hands touch the sky in praise.

The house of God is built upon the hard cold stone inside of you, and the cracks in your walls of certainty let the light in.

It’s ok to admit that- the angels understand. They will ascend and descend upon all of it.

20 Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing,21 and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God.

And so we hope to return again to those wounded prisoners of war who we are fleeing from today. We hope to see these stones again. We trust God with the outcome.

What if we surrendered all the heavy things that weigh us down? What if the things in the margins were really the most important pieces to release?

If the hard stones of regret we lay our heads upon can become the foundation for our dreams, then perhaps there is not as much grief as we thought.

To surrender, simply anoint your past with honor and dignity, pouring recognition and compassion upon it. Then leave it behind you, to stand there as a testament of what you once were.

Keep walking, but leave the stones behind. They are all anointed- you can trust that they will be ok. That holy place will still be there when you return someday.

And you will return- although you don’t know when, because that is not part of the dream.

But for now, it’s best to leave the hard things. Bring only the dream which was built upon the bedrock of surrender.

Compartmentalize that which no longer serves you- sanctify the past and lay it down.

Move through the rest of your life trailing the angels of your dreams instead. 

Children remember dreams better than adults, so be childlike when you run to Him.

Now take a moment to say goodbye to the regret of the past. Say goodbye.

Here in the wilderness of meditation, find a stone and sanctify it. Dear reader, what is the stone of regret that you need to leave behind?

 ²² And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.”

The next thing to do is worship- this is the only way to survive now.

Worship like your life depends on it- because it does.

We are all spiritual beings in a physical temple, and worship is an act that brings unity to both sides of our composition, allowing them to work together for the same purpose.

Worship is the integrity of body, mind and soul.

And like Jacob, give at least ten percent of your thoughts to the dream in your heart- that’s a window of opportunity for your angels to gather around.

Be mindful of where you have come from, and never forget the lessons of the holy stones you left behind. Mindfulness brings balance.

The emotions should serve the spirit. Your vision should be supported by them.

Arise and go to Bethel- the house of God. This is not a church I speak of, but a community. A safe place to belong, where you can go to love and be loved, where you can anoint the stones of regret and leave them far behind.

Do you ever ask yourself what you will be doing a thousand years from now? For we are all eternal beings, every one of us. We all have a story to tell that never ends.

And when I read about Jacob I realize that All. The. Things. in our story can be holy.

Even the precious stones beneath our weary head.

The angels are waiting eagerly to see what happens next- they are the readers of your every word.  They are hangers-on of your every surrender.

Because Bethel is our city- our dreams belong in the House of God. Here the hard places beneath our heads will become holy and shining, a testament to our victory.

Yet who am I to speak of holy things? I am not qualified.

I am just another girl with a blog. Or so I have heard.

Call me whatever you want, because my King calls me Beloved. We are all His beloved- say it with me:

I AM ENOUGH.

Please realize that some of you are blessed so that you can bless others. And some of us are broken so that we can receive.

Today I run with Jacob.

We are learning together that stones are holy dreams.

If we are always fleeing and never arriving, we need to stop and anoint the very next blessing that we lay our heavy heads to rest upon.

It’s time for Selah- a divine pause.

And after I am done sanctifying my past,

I will walk away like my brother Jacob,

and I will dream like him, too.

Our angels are trailing close behind us, reading every word of our story.

Do you see them? They are here with us both. They are our biggest fans.

When I walk away from the hard place, I take a whole crowd of angels with me. They understand my victory- they applaud my courage. The stone I leave behind me is sanctified and waiting with honor for my return someday.

Dear reader, today I pray that you will find a moment to close your own eyes, rest your head and dream. And when you wake, anoint the heavy place in your heart and then set it down away from you. Leave your regret behind you for another day, because too much grief is toxic to your soul.

Feel how much lighter you are after surrendering the hard things- you can run so much faster.

Now go, move forward into the rest of your life, trailing the angels of your dreams behind you everywhere you go. Run towards the Creator, the Author of your story.

And may all beings be peaceful and happy.
Amen and amen.

~*~

With deepest gratitude 

for my tiny tribe of readers-

Rebecca

To read Pearls and Presence, click here.

To read my story, click here. 

Blessings in Earthen Vessels- Genesis 24

A Blessing is found in a clay pot within the hands of a stranger.

But I am an introverted skeptical cynic.

Which is why I have a blog. So I can write things like-

How can the answer to prayer be found in a plain earthen vessel?

Ah, my friends, let’s not forget that the King of the world was found in a dirty wooden trough.

It’s time to de-mystify and normalize the voice of God.

It’s time to recognize and trust the simplicity of the abundant gift.

My friends, when God extends to you an answer to prayer, do you stop and stare at it and question it before trusting? Do you pause and wait to see if you might be let down? Do you evaluate your level of emotional certainty and weigh all the other options?

Yes. I do. I am an introverted skeptical cynic.

But the reality is that sometimes the answer is standing before us, hands extended, offering us a drink of water to quench our parched throats after a long journey through the hot desert.

The answer to prayer is within the simplicity right in front of you.

Perhaps we have been walking along with a great caravan of baggage that brings us comfort and security, and so we are very weary. When finally we come to the well, we can set it all down and take a break to pray.

This is when we will encounter an answer before we can even finish asking.

And all we can do is stare in wonder at the stranger who stands before us with the earthen vessel. All we can do is repeat our questions.

Is this too good to be true? How do I know if this is an answer to prayer?

We almost miss the Blessing because we are searching for something more mysterious, more profound. We don’t realize that the answer is simple, straight-forward, and available here and now.  A treasure found in a jar made of clay, held in the arms of Someone we have never met before and yet have known all our lives.

A drink for our thirsty soul.

This week I made a specific and important ask before God. It is a new year and I knew there were some things that I was ready to let go of- emotional baggage that no longer served me, change I wanted to see happen in my personal life. It was all wrapped up in one specific prayer request that ended with “God, please GIVE ME A SIGN. Amen”.

I wrote it down in a journal entry and said it out loud. And I don’t know what I really expected to happen after that, except maybe nothing.

Or a miracle.

Would I hear the audible voice of God speaking in reply? I thought if I did get something in response, it would be mysterious feedback that I would need to decode. Or perhaps there would be some strings attached in order to prove myself and earn the prize.

Funny thing is, unlike most prayer requests, this answer came within HOURS. Literally, just a few hours. And it was straight-forward, clear as day, smiling into my dusty eyes, extending a drink to me, saying “THIS IS YOUR BLESSING”.

And I doubted.

"Where is the mystery? This is too easy. What am I missing?"

I’m scared to believe, God.

I also came to Genesis 24 on my slow journey through Scripture, and there I learned that treasures are often found in earthen vessels, even here and now.

Simple answers to prayer that don’t have any strings attached, but hands of kindness extended out.

“Accept the gift,” I said to myself. “Blessing is found within the clay pot. Take it, for God’s sake, girl!”

“See the sign and trust,” He said to me. “Receive the abundance. For your sake, child!”

In order to recognize the answers to prayer that stand before us, the Blessings that are extending to us a cool drink of water for our thirsty souls, we need to do just one thing:

De-mystify and normalize the voice of God, because Abundance is actually very simple.

Answers to prayer are not relegated to churches or Sundays or pastors- in fact sometimes it is the very religious things that will hinder or distract us from hearing directly from Him.

Sometimes the long caravan of baggage we 

carry is a religion empty of Divinity. 

So let’s walk together through Genesis 24-

“Abraham was now a very old man, and the Lord had blessed him in every way. One day Abraham said to his oldest servant, the man in charge of his household, ‘Go to my homeland, to my relatives, and find a wife there for my son Isaac.” v1-2,4

Okay. We are given an assignment; a task to accomplish that involves specific instructions. Seems straight-forward enough, what could go wrong? You say to yourself “you’ve got this! Execute it with perfection!”

Mmmm, wait. Perfection? Uh-oh. Fear creeps in, because striving for excellence brings anxiety. This is a lifelong struggle for me. And when I become anxious, I start asking worried questions-

The servant asked, ‘But what if I can’t find a young woman who is willing to travel so far from home?” v5

The worry is that perhaps we are being asked to do something too hard, because naturally we plan to achieve it in our own strength.

“But what if I can’t?”

The road to Blessing now looks difficult. The journey appears to be really long with too much hard work; the path is through a hot and dry desert.

So God encourages us with His promises, and He gives us His Word.

Abraham responded, “The Lord will send His angel ahead of you, and he will see to it that you find a wife there for my son.” v6

We want to be absolutely certain there is a drink of cool water on the other side.

With some hesitation we say, “Okay, God, I will trust you on this one. I will take the journey.”

“The servant swore to follow Abraham’s instructions.” v9

But we also take a whole caravan of backup plans and fear-based thoughts, just in case God doesn’t fulfill His end of things. Best to be prepared to do this independently, right?

“Don’t worry, God, I’ve got this. Let’s go…”

Then he loaded ten of Abraham’s camels with all kinds of expensive gifts from his master, and he traveled to a distant town.” v9-10

And so we go where God instructed us, but the journey is even harder because we are carrying everything we could possibly take with us for protection and security.

Loaded down with qualifications, possessions, titles, achievements, past hurts, regrets, grievances, offenses, fears, unmet needs and other impressive things we treasure- whatever convinces us we will be worthy of and entitled to the Blessing when we arrive.

Because maybe God will send an answer, but maybe, just in case, we should have something to bargain with to make the Answer to our prayer even better.

So naturally, by the time we get to the destination, we are desperately thirsty.

We must sit down, release our burdens, rest and gather back our strength.

We look around and wonder, “where is the Blessing? I’m so thirsty, God. It’s hot here, and this baggage is a lot of work. Where are You? All I see here are strangers in this place.”

 “He made the camels kneel beside a well just outside the town. It was evening, and the women were coming out to draw water.” v11

He did not ask us to grasp every single treasure we hold dear and caravan them all across the desert.

He only asked us to show up

and arrive thirsty.

But maybe we realize too late that the heavy load we shouldered through the entire wilderness was not going to accomplish anything when we arrived, except to hinder our strength. So now we lay it all down and realize nothing we brought is of any use in this moment.

All the protection and security we planned for, it’s out of our control.

We are surrounded by strangers in a foreign land.

Empty trust is required here.

Simple prayer is needed now, nothing more.

So we simply pray.

“Oh Lord, God of my master, Abraham,” the servant prayed. “Please give me success today and show unfailing love to my master Abraham.” v12

There is no certainty here, only need- an awareness of lack.

We show up, dusty and tired, lay our burdens down, and wait for help.

“God, give me a sign. What am I doing here?

Please help. This caravan is useless.”

“See, I am standing here beside this spring, and the young women of the town are coming out to draw water. This is my request. I will ask one of them, ‘Please give me a drink from your jug.’ If she says ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too!’ – let her be the one you have selected as Isaacs wife. This is how I will know that you have shown unfailing love to my master.” V13-14

We doubt that help is coming, and so we make parameters because of the fear that it will be easy to miss God’s answer. We think He may not clarify what the Blessing looks like. We think His reply will be complicated, so we start establishing guidelines.

We are afraid to trust.

We start to negotiate with the Creator of the universe.

But Blessing interrupts our frightened futility.

“Before he had finished praying, he saw a young woman named Rebekah coming out with her water jug on her shoulder. She was very beautiful and of age to be married, but she was still a virgin. She went down to the spring, filled her jug, and came up again. Running over to her, the servant said, ‘Please give me a little drink of water from your jug.’” V15-17

The answer to prayer shows up in the middle of our bartering tactics, interrupting with a cool drink of water. The Blessing is here after all. And she smiles and extends the earthen vessel out towards us and asks us to trust the simple Abundance.

“‘Yes, my lord,’ she answered, ‘have a drink.’ And she quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and gave him a drink.” v18

Now we are a bit embarrassed by all the security measures we took to ensure an answer to prayer. Perhaps we realize that our manipulation is showing. What can you say when Blessing waters all your baggage, even if that burden looks like ten camels loaded with stuff you thought could help ensure the outcome?

You say nothing, because there are no words for this kind of Grace.

And the Abundant blessing has only just begun…

 “When she had given him a drink, she said, ‘I’ll draw water for your camels, too, until they have had enough to drink. So she quickly emptied her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw water for all his camels.” V18-20

Abundance looks like a lot of trips to down to the well and back. But Blessing covers all of it without hesitation.

Every last camel in our caravan of wounds is

watered, and peace covers the multitude of 

fear.

And still, we doubt.

Still, we remain speechless.

“The servant watched her in silence, wondering whether or not the Lord had given him success in his mission.” V21

All we can do is stare at Blessing in action.  Abundance waters every dry place inside: qualifications, possessions, titles, achievements, past hurts, regrets, grievances, offenses, fears, unmet needs and other impressive things we thought were a treasure but are really the things that makes us weary and worn.

Why do we doubt the freedom of Abundance?

The voice of God needs to be demystified- it’s not a church or a pastor or a Sunday. It’s not complicated or hidden deep inside religion.

It’s a child of God holding out a drink of 

water.

Someone who will willingly bring enough refreshment to compensate for all the weight of control that you were determined to drag with you in the heat of a dry desert afternoon.

Blessing quenches all of it.

Abundance lays it all down to rest.

Peace settles on the caravan of chaos.

All is quiet and time stands still.

And as we stare into the kind eyes before us, we realize that the things we believed would serve us in this moment, most of them are totally unnecessary and only weigh us down.

We discover that Abundance is found in simplicity.

Only a few things are really necessary now.

“Then at last, when the camels had finished drinking, he took out a gold ring for her nose and two large gold bracelets for her wrists.” v22

We realize that of all the burdens that we loaded onto our ten camels, perhaps only a handful of our treasures were really necessary after all. So we take them out and offer them up and say a prayer for help.

‘Whose daughter are you?’ He asked. And please tell me, would your father have any room to put us up for the night?” v23

And we wait for the voice of Blessing to give us permission. We are totally vulnerable now, exposed, broken and waiting. There is anticipation in our soul.

We are broken.

“I am Rebekah, the daughter of Bethuel. Yes, we have plenty of straw and feed for the camels, and we have room for guests.” V24-25

The wait is over. The weight is over. Blessing is upon us, here and now.

And we didn’t have to barter or beg, search or decode or strive.

We don’t need an impressive caravan.

We only needed to show up and be seen, ask and receive.

We have permission

to receive the Abundance.

“The servant bowed low and worshiped the Lord. ‘Praise the Lord, the God of my master Abraham.’ He said. ‘The Lord has shown unfailing love and faithfulness to my master, for he has led me straight to my master’s relatives.” V26-28

Worship is the recognition that blessing is found in earthen vessels.

That a King is found in human persons.

That a Kingdom is established in broken hearts.

We lay it all down and realize that God has been waiting to bless us all along, whether we showed up with just a handful of things or a full caravan of camels

.

The Blessing was not contingent upon our ability to impress or manipulate- it was based on the fact that we made the journey to show up and be seen.

The drink was going to be offered regardless. We just need to admit we are thirsty.

God, our souls are thirsty, deep down inside.

Dig a well, draw the water, and deliver us.

And now Blessing rushes back to the Father to call down a feast of Abundance upon us.

“The young woman ran home to tell her family everything that had happened.” V28

She forgot her jug.

The servant forgot why he came.

This is the law of awe and wonder.

Religion is simply the catalyst for

spiritual connection.

Blessing has been waiting for us longer than we have been waiting for it.

And so the Abundance to come is even greater than our present need.

Our request was too small.

This is the law of lavish love.

This is Abundance in action.

 “Rebekah’s brother rushed out to the spring, where the servant was still standing beside his camels. The man named Laban said to the servant, ‘Come and stay with us, you who are blessed by the Lord! Why are you standing here outside the town when I have a room all ready for you and a place prepared for the camels?’” v30-31

There is still a place of doubt in our heart which has had a great deal of influence and experience from our past. Our skepticism says we must earn the Blessing in order to receive Abundance.

Even in the joy of answered prayer, we still struggle for control.

I am an introverted skeptical cynic.

Won’t you join me, my friend?

“Then food was served. But Abraham’s servant said, ‘I don’t want to eat until I have told you why I have come.’” V32-33

As the abundance of Blessing is presented, we step back and wonder what it’s going to cost us.

We doubt. We don’t fully trust.

And because Blessing makes room for doubt, respecting our insecurities and honoring our fears, it keeps the feast warm while waiting patiently for all our skeptical questions to be answered.

“All right,’ Laban said, ‘tell us.’ v33

And we begin to state our case.

We tell God all the reasons that we have earned this Blessing, reasons why we deserve it, as if we need to convince Him of our worthiness.

We tell God all the reasons that we didn’t earn this Blessing, reasons why don’t deserve it, as if we need to convince Him of our unworthiness.

We parade

 our caravan of treasures.

“I am Abraham’s servant. And the Lord has greatly blessed my master; he has become a wealthy man.” v34

We are afraid to receive from Him. We are afraid He will see through us and revoke the Abundance. And so we list our accolades, our achievements, our titles, our labels, our acts of service and greatness.

We are afraid to be denied.

We are afraid He will see through us and deny our desires and crush our hopes and dreams.

And so we punish ourselves, take ourselves out of the game, revoke our own privileges as children of the King.

We keep one foot out the door, waiting to be kicked, planning an exit strategy.

But eventually we come to the end of the list of reasons why. 

And then we realize that none of it is holding us back, because the feast is already laid out and it’s meant just for us.

So we humbly admit our lack, our need and dependence…

Today when I came to the spring I prayed this prayer: ‘O Lord, God of my master, Abraham, please give me success on my mission. See, I am standing here beside this spring. This is my request.’” v42-43

We are vulnerable, revealing our inability to manipulate the outcome.

Exposing our need.

And expecting to be turned away now, we give Blessing an exit because we doubt our Divine inheritance.

“So tell me, will you or won’t you show unfailing love and faithfulness to my master? Please tell me yes or no, and then I’ll know what to do next.” v49

And Blessing sees our fearful heart and smiles at our childlike honesty.

And the answer to prayer comes quietly, honestly, straightforward.

“Then Laban replied, ‘The Lord has obviously brought you here, so there is nothing we can say. Here is Rebekah, take her and go. Yes, let her be the wife of your master’s son, as the Lord has directed.’” V50-51

Dear God, you really do want to bless me, don’t You? You love me so much.

Ah, the goodness is heartbreaking.

Tears flow. Abundant tears of gratitude.

Worship will be the natural response, and then the feast can begin.

“When Abraham’s servant heard their answer, he bowed down to the ground and worshiped the Lord. Then they ate their meal, and the servant and the men with him stayed there overnight.’” V52-54

So we dine with Divinity and celebrate the victory.

But receiving a Blessing is only the beginning.

Responding to it means returning to our community and sharing it with others.

Being responsible for answered prayer means

living your whole life as if it’s true.

It means taking it home with you.

Shouldering the burden of Blessing requires action.

Because what happens at the feast must travel out with you onto the desert road and beyond.

“Early the next morning, Abraham’s servant said, ‘Send me back to my master. Don’t delay me. The Lord has made my mission successful; now send me back so I can return to my master.’” v56

We could sit and enjoy the feasting and celebration for many days to come, basking in the goodness. But to truly receive the Blessing, we cannot be passive.

We must actively respond and pay it forward- we must take the Abundance back home.

It’s time to go home.

“Well,’ they said, ‘we’ll call Rebekah and ask her what she thinks. So they called Rebekah. ‘Are you willing to go with this man?’” they asked her. And she replied, ‘Yes, I will go.’” v57-58

So we leave our heavy caravan of treasures behind. The journey home with be easier because we travel lightly, carrying only Abundance now. There is certainty in the simplicity.

Our thirst has been quenched. Our prayer has been answered.

“Yes, I will go.”

It’s time to act as if this is really true.

Which sometimes means saying goodbye to the treasures from your past which no longer serve you.

“So they said good-bye to Rebekah and sent her away with Abraham’s servant and his men. Then Rebekah and her servant girls mounted the camels and followed the man. So Abraham’s servant took Rebekah and went on his way.’” v59, 61

The return journey is still long, hot and dry- it is the same road as before.

But we no longer carry the weight of our treasured past as we walk the road back home.

Now we carry an eternal soul and a trust in the lavish abundance of our everlasting God.

And we will eagerly pass on the Blessing to others because we realize we won’t lose a thing.

The caravan we travel with is eternal and immeasurable, contained in human vessels.

“One evening as Isaac was walking and meditating in the fields, he looked up and saw the camels coming. When Rebekah looked up and saw Isaac, she quickly dismounted from her camel. ‘Who is that man walking through the fields to meet us?’ she asked the servant.” v63-65

We present our gratitude to God with tears of joy, hands raised, fearless and free. This is the moment we could never earn, not even with a thousand camels of weighted regrets.

This is when Abundance meets community.

“And the servant replied, ‘It is my master.’ So Rebekah covered her face with her veil. Then the servant told Isaac everything he had done.” v65

And the Abundance of our answered prayer will echo for generations to come, because we learned to release our burdens, trust the Blessing and share it with others.

There, in community, Abundance can multiply.

 “And Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother Sarah’s tent, and she became his wife. He loved her deeply, and she was a special comfort to him after the death of his mother.” v67

My friends, we took the long hard journey through the dry and dusty desert, to show up and let ourselves be seen, lay down our burdens and ask humbly for help.

And now we see that blessing is found within the clay pot which is extended out in the hands of a stranger.

Now all creation celebrates with our victory, and the story will go on forever.

Because we trusted the simple Answer which is found in a dirty wooden trough, available to every human person that has ever lived and loved and known what it means to be thirsty.

We showed up and allowed ourselves to be seen and stand in the uncertainty of not knowing.

We were willing to travel the long road back 

home, to share what we had learned with 

others.

Blessings are answers to prayer, simple and beautiful, a Stranger we have always known.

“God has yet to bless anyone except where they actually are.” 
― Dallas Willard

On my own journey through the desert, I had quite a caravan of camels with me.

And one day in particular I will never forget: I was using my iPhone gps for directions to someplace new.

I was looking for a well, because I was thirsty.

“Take the exit,” my iPhone gps stated very matter-of-factly.

This instruction made me cry.

I burst into tears when my iPhone told me to “take the exit”. I cried as I took the freeway off-ramp. A well of tears came up.

Because I realized I was not going to carry this caravan of useless treasures with me for very much longer. I was about to take an EXIT.

I was time to travel in a new direction.

The Blessing was going to be found at a well in a foreign land among strangers.

And Abundance was in the releasing of 

treasure.

The journey would lead me through a dry desert to a well, where only humility and honesty would quench my thirst.

I would need to have a great deal of courage to trust the answer and receive the Blessing.

Remember, dear reader, that Blessing is found inside a clay pot within the hands of a stranger.

An Abundance which will fill all the dry places and follow us home.

This week I was blessed with an answer to prayer that simple and yet profound. A Blessing which looked like a dry desert road that required courage, humility, bravery and honesty.

But I am an introverted skeptical cynic.

Which is why I have a blog. So I can ask things like-

How can the answer to prayer be found in a plain earthen vessel?

Ah, my friends, let’s not forget that the King of the world was found in a dirty wooden trough.

It’s time to de-mystify and normalize the voice of God.

It’s time to recognize and trust the simplicity

 of the abundant gift.

My friends, when God extends to you an answer to prayer, do you stop and stare at it and question it before trusting? Do you pause and wait to see if you might be let down? Do you evaluate your level of emotional certainty and weigh all the other options?

Yes. I do. I am an introverted skeptical cynic. Are you?

But the reality is that sometimes the answer is standing before us, hands extended, offering us a drink of water to quench our parched throats after a long journey through the hot desert.

The answer to prayer is within the simplicity right in front of you.

Perhaps we have been walking along with a great caravan of baggage that brings us comfort and security, and so we are weary. When finally we come to the well, we can set it all down and take a break to pray.

This is when we will encounter an answer before we can even finish asking.

And all we can do is stare in wonder at the stranger who stands before us with the earthen vessel. All we can do is repeat our questions.

Is this too good to be true? How do I know if this is an answer to prayer?

We almost miss the Blessing because we are searching for something more mysterious, more complicated.

We don’t realize that the answer is simple, straight-forward, and available here and now.  A treasure found in a jar made of clay, held in the arms of Someone we have never met before and yet have known all our lives.

A drink for our thirsty soul.

Don’t miss the Blessings this week, my friends. When you pray for guidance, remember that Abundance is simply waiting beside the well to give you a drink.

Bring only what is absolutely necessary- humility and honesty contained in our earthen bodies.

Don’t drag all your junk through the dry desert- it won’t help you anyway. Trust me, I know.

Just show up, ask for help and allow yourself to be seen.

And Abundance will lay a feast in your honor and then follow you back home. And when we get to our destination, we will pass the Blessing along to others, and the story will go on for all eternity.

Receive the earthen vessel. Drink deeply. Release your burdens.

And bring the Abundance home.

~*~

With deepest gratitude for all my readers-

Rebecca

To read Pearls and Presence, click here.

To read my story, click here.