School Theme

The theme for the 2025-2026 school year at BACS comes from Genesis 28,

“Surely the LORD is in this place!” 

These words are spoken by Jacob, who is later named Israel. When Jacob says these words, it is not what we might call a highpoint in his career. Jacob recently left home in order to escape his brother Esau’s life-ending threats—threats that were not unprovoked. Jacob stole Esau’s birthright by dressing up like his brother and fooling their mostly-blind father, Isaac.

While on the escape road toward the family’s ancestral lands, Jacob stops for the evening and has an epiphanic dream—angels ascending and descending on some sort of stairway or ladder, with God at the top. This is when Jacob wakes up and makes that declaration: “Surely the LORD is in this place.”

There are a couple details that stick out to me in this story. The first is that God didn’t give Jacob that dream when he was at the top of his game and leading his best life. No, Jacob had that dream when he was experiencing the full ramifications of his mistakes. My takeaway from this aspect of the story is that God never gives up on us—even in the middle of our mistakes. He is always reaching out to us to show us the way to heaven. And He is at the top.

Another detail that sticks out to me is that Jacob wasn’t in a tent, or a temple, or anywhere terribly special. He wasn’t even in a comfortable bed. He was in a “place” on the ground, with a rock as a pillow. And my takeaway from this aspect of the story is that we can find God ANYWHERE. It doesn’t have to be in a beautiful cathedral or a small church building; it could be on a city street, or your bedroom, or out on a walk in nature—the Lord is everywhere!

Speaking of places: BACS was blessed for the past several decades to have the old school that we had, and hundreds of students walked through those walls from kindergarten through eighth grade. The Lord truly was in that place.

And now, BACS is moving into a brand-new building this year. A building in which new generations of students will learn about math, science, history, … and especially, about the Lord. One of our goals as BACS is for the students to learn that the Lord isn’t just in a church, or just in chapel and religion class, but the Lord is everywhere, even in this place.

Rev. Jeffrey Smith
School Pastor at Bryn Athyn Church School

 

Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. So he came to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven; and there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

And behold, the Lord stood above it and said: “I am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and your descendants. Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.” And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”

Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously. Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me, and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God. And this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God’s house, and of all that You give me I will surely give a tenth to You.”

Genesis 28:10-22

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