This week we read of Jacob using a rock for a pillow and in his dream seeing angels going up and down a ladder, and God standing at the bottom of the ladder, speaking to him.

I once gave a teaching in which I asked the group if he had stopped 20 yards away and used a different rock for the pillow, would God have been there? Would the angels and their ladder have appeared to him? Because when he awakened, he said, “God was in this place, and I, I did not know it.”

I think that God was in that place because Jacob was in that place. Not that God was following him around. But Jacob had the fortitude, the sense of self, the inner strength, to summon the angels and their ladder, to ensure that God would be wherever he was going to be that night. Ten feet or a mile away, God would be in that place.

One of the names we give to God is HaMakom, the Place. It is an odd moniker for a God who is, at least in the Jewish tradition, more ethereal than physically present. But I have always loved the idea of thinking of God as a place. A place where I can visit anytime I want. A place somewhere deep in my heart, in my psyche. A place that is always available, if I am willing to seek it.

But seeking God must be a wholehearted effort. You have to be willing to let go, to let yourself fall asleep in the middle of nowhere, with a rock for a pillow. You cannot be afraid of the dark, or wild animals, or things that go bump in the night.

It’s a tall order. Perhaps the goal of a lifetime of seeking. Or maybe, just maybe, God was here all along. In this place.