Just like Jacob

I am still in the process of deciding on a home church.  I went to another new one today and randomly met this older couple who were super nice.  The guy did an internship at First Presbyterian Church in Bethlehem, PA (where I just moved from) like 3 years ago and the woman did VISTA (what I did last year) back in the day.  Kind of crazy.  But the church itself was not really my style.

I was struck by something the pastor said at the church I went to this morning.  He was preaching about God's glory, but this particular part was about Jacob and Esau from the old testament (Genesis 27).  For those of you that don't know the story, here is a super short summary.  Esau and Jacob are brothers, Esau is older.  Jacob is the messed up son who hangs around with his mom a lot.  Esau is the man of the family who is often off hunting and doing what his father asks of him.  Their father is super old and blind and about to die soon so he decides he wants to bless his older (favorite) son who he loves and give him the inheritance and stuff.  Jacob is not happy with this so while his brother is out, he dresses up in his clothes and things and tricks their father into believing that he is Esau.  The father falls for it and gives the blessing and inheritance to Jacob.

So what the pastor said that really stuck with me is that we are all like Jacob.  We all fall short of God's glory in every way.  But if we are clothed in Jesus, the perfect, loved son, God blesses us and gives us the inheritance.  So God blesses us not because of what we have done or anything that we could ever do.  But he blesses us because we are clothed to look like Jesus.  I feel as though I am not articulating this well, but it is a really awesome concept.  We are entirely like Jacob.  We mess up every second of every day, but try to trick God and ourselves.  As long as we are clothed in Jesus, God will bless us.  Of course he is never tricked, he knows exactly who we are.  But he chooses to bless us and give us his inheritance.

I dunno if that makes sense to you.  But it goes along with me wanting to learn more and more about the person of Jesus.  I can't clothes myself to look like someone that I don't know about.  But I fall short of God's glory all the time, everyday and I need to clothe myself in him.  So basically I need to continue learning and discovering more about who he is.