"Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it."

"Jacob left Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it! ... Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, 'Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it' (Genesis 28).

We fickle humans place such an emphasis on the high points of life that we tend to miss the little points along the way. All too often we bypass the waysides of life, attempting to scurry around the monotonous and less luxurious moments of day-to-day life, in search of the firework displays and emotional highs.

But our Lord works in mysterious ways his wonders to perform.

Take Jacob, for instance. On his travels, Jacob walked until the sun set. At that point, at the time of day when travel was no longer possible, he made camp and went to sleep. Jacob did not have a destination when he left on his days long journey to return to his mother's family. Jacob did not set out to find the holy mountain of the Lord on which to spend the night. He simply stopped when he could travel no farther, and the Lord descended (and ascended) at that spot. When Jacob awoke, he declared that spot a holy place, a place where the Lord himself stood by him in the night to confer to him the old covenant promises of land, offspring, and blessing.

The people of God are often looking past the normal things of life, missing the reality that God is working in those times as well as the abnormal. We much prefer the emotional concerts, the new and exhilarating guest speakers, the excitement of meeting new people - people who don't know us, but in a short conversation of our boasting can applaud our greatness.

Too often we bypass the normal and ordinary stops of our life travels hoping for great experiences further down the road. In moments like these, we are no better than the Scribe and the Levite in Jesus's parable of the Good Samaritan. The Levite and the Scribe had more important, more spiritual work to do in Jerusalem; they couldn't possibly stop in order to practice what they preached on a dangerous road - a sparsely traveled road far from the eyes of the applauding crowds. There was no one there to see their good deeds, so they figured, "What's the point?"

Yet, Jesus himself commends the Samaritan, the only one who stopped and bothered himself to take care of the person right in front of him.

These stories have profound, yet simple applications for us today. One application is divulged below.

Recently, the murderous mother, Lindsay Clancy - and a growing host of copy cats - is about to receive a great injustice when she goes free without paying for the murder of her three children. Foundational to Clancy's worldview, however, is the societal belief that women should neglect their children and homes in order to pursue careers outside the home. Undoubtedly, this is one of the most stress-inducing and spirit-deflating juxtapositions of our day. Mothers are made to be in the home, loving their husbands, preparing nutritious meals, and loving their children (e.g., Titus 2). When she is made to do this, yet feels obligated to work outside the home as well, her mind breaks and her emotions and hormones are devastated.

Consider The New York Times recently published article in early September 2026 with the headline: "Lindsay Clancy was a nurse who 'always wanted to be a mother.'" Having one foot in career and one in the home is such an impossible task that our daughters are trying to accomplish. It is literally breaking them.

Why are our daughters foregoing motherhood - what they want - to pursue a career?

They have been sold the lie that taking care of kids is a small and even a meaningless goal. After all, the system provides subsidized daycare and free public education, which provides all that is needed for the mother to forego her domestic responsibilities and natural desires to nurture her family in order to pursue a career and become an economic contributor.

I read recently that women have surpassed men in the workforce for the first time ever: now, women hold over 100,000 more jobs than men in our economy. The results of this statistic are devastating.

Brothers and sisters: you have a high calling to serve Christ by serving your spouse and children. Don't buy the devil's lies: this is the holy ground you are seeking. This is the place - your home - where the work of Christ is carried out in glorious monotony.

As the apostle Paul told Titus with all the authority of Christ himself:

"But as for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine. Older men are to be sober-minded, dignified, self-controlled, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness. Older women likewise are to be reverent in behavior, not slanderers or slaves to much wine. They are to teach what is good, and so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled. Likewise, urge the younger men to be self-controlled. Show yourself in all respects to be a model of good works, and in your teaching show integrity, dignity, and sound speech that cannot be condemned, so that an opponent may be put to shame, having nothing evil to say about us" (Titus 2:1-8).

Brothers and sisters: don't be like Jacob. Know that the Lord is in this place, and fulfill your calling to be good and godly husbands and wives, fathers and mothers. You won't be applauded by the world for this choice; but you will have stored up for yourselves eternal rewards that cannot be destroyed.

Coram deo.