2023 Daily Lenten Journey – Day 37

During this year’s Daily Lenten Journey, we’ve been focusing on returning to the beginning. We return not just to study the past, but to restart and refocus our attention on the importance of our salvation. Our return to the beginning has allowed us to remember the promise that God made. He will save us. In exchange we will follow Him. Sometimes we don’t follow Him.

When this happens, we are easily led astray. Our study over the past weeks has found countless examples of what happens when we stray from God’s path of salvation. Adam and Eve strayed. Cain strayed. Even Isaac and Esau strayed. Despite all our straying, God’s promise has never once been abandoned. We only need to go back and pick up where we left off.

Then the LORD said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to your kindred, and I will be with you.”  So Jacob sent and called Rachel and Leah into the field where his flock was, and said to them, “I see that your father does not regard me with favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me.  You know that I have served your father with all my strength; yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me.  If he said, ‘The spotted shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore spotted; and if he said, ‘The striped shall be your wages,’ then all the flock bore striped.  Thus God has taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.  In the mating season of the flock I lifted up my eyes, and saw in a dream that the he-goats which leaped upon the flock were striped, spotted, and mottled.  Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am!’  And he said, ‘Lift up your eyes and see, all the goats that leap upon the flock are striped, spotted, and mottled; for I have seen all that Laban is doing to you.  I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to me. Now arise, go forth from this land, and return to the land of your birth.'”  Then Rachel and Leah answered him, “Is there any portion or inheritance left to us in our father’s house?  Are we not regarded by him as foreigners? For he has sold us, and he has been using up the money given for us.  All the property which God has taken away from our father belongs to us and to our children; now then, whatever God has said to you, do.”

Genesis 31.3-16

God continues to call us back through repentance to His path where He promises to be with us. For us today, we can find Him inside the Church. That is one main reason the Church offers so many additional services during Great Lent. The ancient Church gathered in worship daily to remain focused on God.

Over the years we have strayed. We no longer attend Church services every week, let alone every day. We skip one day, which becomes one week, which left unchecked becomes years away from the Church. As today’s reading reminds us. When we stray, the world pushes against us. God remains faithful, but we struggle thinking we can do it on our own.

As we make our final preparations for Holy Week and Pascha, make plans now to be in Church every day. Make arrangements now to make sure all your chores are finished, so you can attend Holy Week services. God told Jacob to return to the land of his fathers. The Church is our land. It is our home. It is where our forefathers and foremothers gathered to worship God and be saved. Its time for us to go back home.