Scripture: Genesis 28:15
I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.

Thought for the Day: Humans tend to think literally. Even though we’ve done a magnificent job of creating art, music and literature that uses sometimes extremely abstract metaphor and imagery (Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” comes to mind, or the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine,” or any Bergman film), we are still pretty literal beings. So when many of us read the Bible, we take it literally. But the Bible is neither history nor biography, so reading past the metaphor does a great disservice to the artists who wrote stories so beautiful and powerful, that they have endured for thousands and thousands of years.

For example, this passage from Genesis is often read as a promise that God will lead God’s people back to the Holy Land at some point—a literal land somewhere in the Middle East. But this passage is not at all about physical land. The land to which God promises to bring us back is a metaphor for God’s very being. No matter where we literally are, God is with us, working through us all, every human on the planet, to lead us to our rightful place with God, as beings of God, serving through God. Wherever we go, God is with us.

This worshipful land is our rightful and deserved dwelling place. It’s not a literal country, but a spiritual revelation within us that bursts forth like sunlight after a rainstorm. Humanity’s long rainstorm is ending. God is breaking through, and the Promised Land—a spiritual world of peace and harmony, is closer than ever.

Prayer: Glorious God, who continually renews reality, may a new Exodus begin today, an exodus of the heart, mind and soul that leads us out of the dark winter of this illusory, human-created land, and straight to your welcoming, loving spirit. Amen.