Genesis 28:10-22 / Matthew 9:18-26 (2015 / 2019)
In a time of anxiety and distress, it is difficult to see what God is doing or even where God is.
But that is because we are looking more at our own concerns and desperate for solutions rather than to be still and to listen and feel the promptings from God.
Yet it is precisely when everything is spinning and in chaos that we need to stop and look and listen.
In the 1st reading, Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. But it was not a journey of leisure or a business trip.
Jacob was fleeing from the elder twin brother Esau after he had tricked his father Isaac into blessing him instead of Esau.
So Jacob was running for his life and he was not ready for any kind of God-experience until he had to rest for the night.
And there in a dream God spoke to him and made him the promise that he and his descendants shall be a blessing for other nations and that God will not desert him.
Only then did Jacob realized that God was with him and that "the Lord is in this place and I never knew it!"
But in the gospel, we hear of two people who knew who to look for when life was bleeding away or came to a dead end.
In their turmoil and distress the official and the woman with the haemorrhage had the sense to turn to Jesus for healing and salvation.
May we always to turn to Jesus in our turmoil and distress for He has promised to heal us and save us.