August 16 – 22 Family Devotions
Part 2
This comes from Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s book Children of God Storybook Bible
Week of August 16 – 22
Theme: A WONDERFUL DREAM (Genesis 25, 27-28)
Read:
Isaac grew up healthy and strong and had two sons, Esau and Jacob. One day, the brothers fought, and Jacob became scared of his big brother. He ran into the desert to hide. When it was dark, Jacob rested his head on a large, smooth stone and tried to sleep.
For a long time, Jacob stared up at the distant stars. Jacob felt far away from his family and so very alone. Finally, he fell into a restless sleep.
He dreamed of a ladder reaching to the sky with angels going up and down. In the dream, God stood beside him and said, “I made a promise to your forefathers, Abraham and Isaac, and I will keep that promise to you. I will be with you, and I will protect you, and I will always keep you safe.”
Jacob woke up. He was amazed by the dream. “God is in this place, and I did not know it!”
So he took the stone he had rested on, stood it up, and poured oil on it to bless it. He said, “This is the house of God and the gate to heaven.”
He called the place Bethel, which means, “house of God,” and he promised to remember God everywhere he went.
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it. The world and all its people belong to him.
—Psalm 24.1