December 8th - Jacob

 Isaac grew up like all children do and he found a great girl to marry, and they had a son named Jacob. Sometimes Jacob had a hard time with his older brother Esau. Sometimes he had a hard time with his parents, he even lied. And sometimes he had a hard time with wanting to follow God. He thought, “I can take care of things myself.” In Genesis 28:12-16 you can read about how one day as he was traveling it became night and he needed to rest. So, he gathered some rocks to use as a pillow. He had a dream of a ladder that went all the way up to heaven and he saw angels going up and down on it. Jesus came to him in the dream and said, “I am the Lord God of your fathers. I will give this land that you are on to your seed and through your seed the families of the earth will be blessed. I will always be with you. This ladder is to show you that you cannot get to heaven without Jesus.” Jacob finally understood through the dream that he could not always try to do things on his own. He learned he needed to trust that Jesus is the way that will help him get to Heaven. Not just the way, but the only way.

In Jacob’s dream we learn that Jesus is the one who shows us the way back to God, and he is THE way back to God because of His best gift ever of giving His life for us. We are sometimes stubborn like Jacob and think we can do things on our own without help from Jesus. But Jesus waits till we come around and know that it is only through and by Him that we can make our life what it needs to be to return to our Heavenly Home. Jesus is the best gift God gives to us.

This Christmas season as you hang your ornament on the tree today thank God for sending Jesus to be the way to heal all our struggles and return to God again.