Awesome places

I love the story of Jacob’s dream, the theme for January’s Get Messy! session. I love the way it reminds us that whatever our grandparents, parents or carers believe, God wants to be not just our family’s God but our God too in each new generation. And I love the way the dream reminds us of the invisible joining-up of heaven and earth, with God’s Spirit swelling up and down from heaven to earth like a tide, filling every part of the most unlikely areas with God’s blessing. I need to remember that myself in this new year.
In the Messy Celebration this weekend, we’re going to remember the way God is in our Monday–Sunday lives, using words from the story. I’m going to ask families to suggest somewhere they will be tomorrow – a week day – (like school, college, in a meeting, on a building site), and somewhere from the news this week. We’re going to put those places and situations into the gap in the prayer and respond with voices first from one side of the church, then from the other:
Leader: Surely the Lord is in ____________________ and we weren’t aware of it.
One side: How awesome is this place! 
Other side: It’s the gate of heaven.
It should sound funny: ‘Surely the Lord is in my spelling test and we weren’t aware of it.’ ‘Surely the Lord is in my rush-hour commute and we weren’t aware of it.’ But if that funny prayer helps us see Jesus involved and active in our working week, a bit of a chuckle is fine by me.