Will Haughton’s Reflection on July 19, 2020
Scripture Reading:Genesis 28:10-22
Our reading today from Genesis 28 tells what has been one of my favourite Bible-stories over the years. I remember learning it as a boy in Sunday school and being amazed that Jacob could sleep in the wilderness with a rock for a pillow—surely one of the awe-inspiring mysteries of scripture. As a younger man, I remember appreciating the way that God had promised to be with one of his chosen people, Jacob, to the end of his journey—not because Jacob was a particularly good and faithful person or that he deserved it but because God is generous and faithful. These days, I’m hearing in this tale a reminder of the way God sometimes leads us into uncharted territory in order that we might be more attentive to God and better able to hear what God is saying.
I can’t remember having ever slept outside in my life. When I was growing up, we had a family cottage. It was very rustic and going there was a lot like camping, I suppose, but we never actually camped, in tents. Once, when I was about 10 years old, I tried camping out in our back yard with my best friend, Chris Oh, but we never fell asleep and ended up going back inside for the night.
One of the closer moments I ever came to not having a place to sleep was in Brazil, on a summer trip taken with friends when I was in university. Before leaving, we had decided to make as few plans as possible. We wanted to be spontaneous and flexible. We determined our first night’s lodging after asking one of the flight attendants on the way down: “where’s a good place to stay in Sao Paolo?” My memories of our arrival are spotty. The airport had not been given any updates since the 1970s. We took a shuttle bus to the city centre and were appalled at the conditions we saw. When we got to our suite-style hotel room, our nerdy engineering friend Curtis went immediately to flush the toilet in order to watch the water draining in the “opposite” direction. Apparently this happens in the southern hemisphere but I couldn’t tell the difference. Later, we went to get some dinner. Because the seasons are opposite in the global south, it got dark very early on that warm July evening. We couldn’t remember the way back to our hotel. Eventually, we decided to hail a cab and asked the driver to take us back to the Paulista Flats, which was the name of our hotel. Unbeknownst to us, there were several buildings in the city known as the Paulista Flats and it took some considerable time, with increasing anxiety, before we made it “home”.
I will admit, in hindsight, it was not the best idea to visit a foreign country without making sufficient plans in advance. We were never in any danger of being without food or shelter. However, the ideal of spontaneity was shown to be a myth. What happened primarily was that we ended up wasting a lot of time just figuring out where to go and what to do next. I think perhaps that for those of us with some stability in our lives, we neglect to realize how draining it is for some others to spend so much time and energy strategizing their next meals or sleeping arrangements. It’s difficult to focus on or achieve anything else with those questions hanging over your head.
One of the great challenges of this pandemic season, I find, as time goes on, is dealing with the uncertainty. Life feels freer than it did a few months ago, granted, and I, as an outdoorsy person in the summertime, am able to do presently most of the things I would normally do anyway. What is added to our daily routines is a level of uncertainty. It is difficult to plan ahead. It is an added burden to try and accomplish simple tasks while being always mindful of distancing, masks and other procedures. Often, it isn’t clear, what is the right decision to make? Or, what is the appropriate level of risk to be taking—not just for ourselves, but for those we love? Though we are all fortunate to have roofs over our heads, food in our refrigerators and things like technology to help us “zoom”, we are journeying through what, for us, is a relative wilderness.
Thankfully, we know from the biblical story that God sometimes leads us into the wilderness so we can stop being distracted and listen more attentively for what God has to say. In Genesis 28, Jacob had received his father’s blessing, but a highly dysfunctional family dynamic, to put it mildly, led to his fleeing the family home. On the run to his uncle’s family, homeless Jacob slept against a rock and dreamt—angels were going back and forth between heaven and earth and God spoke to Jacob, saying: “I am with you. You will someday have a home and family of your own. Your descendants will be countless and through your family all the families of the earth will be blessed.” This promise continues to come true every day as people from every corner of the earth put their trust in God. Jacob awoke and built his pillow-rock into an altar which marked the place at which his life, and the world, changed forever.
Our own times in the wilderness are not a sign that God has forsaken us. Rather, they area an opportunity to be reminded that God is with us, to draw closer to God, to grow as people and to hear God’s voice. Much uncertainty will remain in our lives. I’m sorry to say our wilderness wanderings usually go on far longer than we hope or expect. However, we can rest assured that God will guide us to our destination and be faithful to all God has spoken.