Every fortnight people from a farming background, or who have a heart for the countryside in the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, offer a personal reflection on faith and rural life. They hope that you will be encouraged by it.

Farms can be of all sizes. Some are large with hundreds of acres, while some are smaller with perhaps just a few acres, yet they all have one thing in common, their fields are often identified by a name: ‘The Long Hill’, ‘The Three-Cornered Field, ‘The Seven Acre’, are just some examples. With each identified by a particular name, when someone is sent to plough or cut silage, they can go to the right place.

As we read the Bible, there are places that are often identified by the use of a name suggesting that this is a place of significance. One such place is Bethel, the place where Jacob had his dream of the ladder reaching from heaven to the earth with the angels ascending and descending (Genesis 28:10-22).

Having run away from his father and brother, Bethel was where Jacob first encountered God. Does that describe your situation just now? Are you running away from something, not only your own circumstances, but from God?

However, God stopped Jacob at Bethel and the encounter changed Jacob’s life. And just like Jacob, we cannot outrun God, or run away from Him. The Psalmist reminds us when he writes, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast” (Psalm 139:8-10).

Jacob may have given up on God, but God hadn’t given up on Jacob – and that’s the good news of the gospel, as the Lord Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. So it ever is with God, as He comes to the underserving, to those who may even think that God couldn’t possibly be interested in them, or even forgive the mess they’ve made of their lives – but he does!

This is the God Jacob encountered at Bethel, the God of new beginnings. In John’s gospel, Jesus makes reference to Jacob’s story and applies it to Himself. When He called Nathanael to follow Him, Jesus said, “‘You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig-tree. You will see greater things than that.’ He then added, ‘Very truly I tell you, you will see “heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on” the Son of Man’” (John 1:50-51).

Jesus applies the image of the heavenly stairway to Himself. He is the ladder by which it is possible for men and women to pass from earth to heaven, to know forgiveness, and a new beginning.

The good news is that God is able to start again with you right where you are. Nothing is too hard for God, no life so messed up that you are barred from Him. Simply confess the sin that troubles you and allow God through His Son Jesus to forgive you, and then go on in the direction He sets before you. As the Apostle Paul tells us, “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Just as Jacob encountered God at Bethel, we too can meet God anywhere, and like Jacob we can also have a new and fresh start.

Robin Fairbairn is part-time ministry co-ordinator with Portavogie Presbyterian Church on the Ards Peninsula in County Down and also works as ministry development officer with The Good Book Company. He lives in the country and has been farming every Saturday for more years than he cares to admit. If you would like to talk to someone about any of the issues raised in this article, please email Rev Kenny Hanna, PCI’s Rural Chaplain at [email protected] or call him on 07938 488 372.