Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Psalm 34:8. And dance! Let the barriers that prevent your heart opening to God come tumbling down and let His love fill you and lift you up in hope…hope in a God who loves you and is merciful to you.

Genesis 32 is an amazing Chapter! Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him. When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God! So he named that place Mahanaim. v. 1. Jacob recognized them as angels and knew God was with him…can you imagine? Jacob needed God’s help. The messengers Jacob sent ahead to let his brother Esau know he was coming returned to tell him that Esau himself was on his way with 400 men with him! In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. v. 7. And then he prayed. Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.” v. 9-12.

And then the most remarkable thing happened to Jacob; alone after sending all of the others ahead. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

There is a dramatization in The Chosen where the character Shmuel, a Pharisee, is arguing with the great Nicodemus, a Pharisee and teacher of teachers, about how blasphemous it was for John the Baptist to say, I baptize with water but among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. John 1:26-27. He couldn’t believe God would wear sandals because God has no feet! Nicodemus asked him would he put God into a box? If God wanted to appear with feet he would. That may have been a dramatization but it certainly speaks to our preconceptions about God.

God wrestled with Jacob through the night! It stopped only when God touched the socket of Jacob’s hip. Can you imagine wrestling with God through the night? Talking with Him and not letting go until you received a blessing?

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 1 John 4:15-16. We can rely on the love God has for us. This morning in prayer God told me rejoice in the truth of my love and let it fill your heart and soul with gladness…dance with Me! Be patient in hope while you are present in love. Taste and see that I am good and rejoice! Can you believe that God can live in you and you in Him? Can you believe that God is love? Can you believe that He lives in your neighbor? Wrestle with God. Tell Him. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8.