I can’t help but wonder in reading Genesis 34 what would have happened if Jacob had turned to God to ask for His help when his daughter, Dinah, was raped. The rapist Shechem, son of Hamor who was the ruler of that area, kept Dinah and spoke tenderly to her. And Shechem said to his…

For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Isaiah 41:13. In Genesis 33 Jacob finally reunites with Esau. Seeing him with 400 men riding toward him, Jacob divided his wives and children behind him. He had no idea…

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…

As I was reading my Bible this morning, my eyes were drawn to the beautiful morning light that I can tell is changing with the changing of the seasons; I can hear the insistent cawing of the grackles in the front, the softer trill of the birds in the back and everything is alive with…

After reading Genesis 30 and praying this morning, I couldn’t help but think about the incredible images we are seeing from the James Webb Space Telescope, the Hubble Space Telescope. As beautiful as the images we could not imagine without their aid are, my favorite image is of our beautiful planet suspended in inky darkness…

This morning in our Prayer and Practices group after praying for concerns in the world and for each other through those trials, we talked about waiting. We shared times we have waited for answers, many times for decades, and how we handled the many emotions that waiting for years can generate. Waiting isn’t easy. I…

In reading Genesis 28 I was drawn to Esau. Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, “Do not marry a Canaanite woman,” and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and…

There are times when I can’t help but wonder what if. What if Rebekah had waited for the blessing from Isaac to Jacob that God had already promised her would be. What if she hadn’t taken matters into her own hands as we read in Genesis 27? She talked Jacob into tricking Isaac and a…

How can we bear to not sing of God’s love that is so beautiful our hearts are lifted up in hope and peace? When I contrast the world today with the problems we face and see glimpses of the world in Isaac’s time in Genesis 26 and see the same discord, the same animosity among…

In Genesis 25 after naming the sons of Ishmael, Abraham’s son through Hagar, who become twelve tribal rulers it says: And they lived in hostility toward all the tribes related to them. v. 18. That’s what God said to Hagar while she was pregnant with Ishmael and had run away from Sarah: and he will…