Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Our reading titled Stolen Gods was written by Tim Gustafson.

A carved wooden figure, a household god, had been stolen from a woman named Akua.

So she reported it to the authorities. Believing they

had found the idol, law enforcement officials invited her to identify it. Is this your god?

they asked. She said sadly, no, my god is much larger and more beautiful than that. People have

long tried to give shape to their concept of deity,

hoping for a handmade God to protect them. Perhaps that's why Jacob's wife, Rachel, stole her father's

household gods as they fled from Laban in Genesis 31. But God had his hand on Jacob, despite the idols hidden in his camp.

Later, on that same journey, Jacob wrestled all night with a man. He must have understood

this opponent was no mere human because at daybreak, Jacob insisted, I will not let you go,

unless you bless me. The man renamed him Israel,

meaning God fights, and then blessed him. Jacob called the spot Paniol, meaning face of God,

because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared. This God, the one true God, is infinitely larger and more beautiful than anything Akua could

have ever imagined.

He can't be carved, stolen, or hidden.

Yet, as Jacob learned that night, we can approach him.

Jesus taught his disciples to call this God, our Father in heaven.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 31 versus 19 through 21

and chapter 32 verses 22 through 30.

When Laban had gone to shear his sheep, Rachel stole her father's household gods.

Moreover, Jacob deceived Laban the Aramean by not telling him he was running away.

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