wrestling with God

I came across a quote earlier today. I have no idea who it is from or where I cam across it. But, it stuck with me again when I read it.

Wrestling with God is not a bad thing. It's impossible to wrestle with someone who is far away from you. You can only wrestle with someone who is close to you. Sometimes we interpret it as failure, but I think God sees it as intimacy.

When I read that, I'm reminded of Genesis 32 where Jacob wrestles with a messenger from God all night. That wrestling changed Jacob. He wasn't the same man after He wrestled with God. He walked away with a permanent mark of that night. He was left with a limp that would remind him of that encounter for the rest of his life.

The same thing can happen with us when we wrestle with God. The intimacy with God that comes from that changes us. We don't walk away the same person. We walk away different from those encounters. Like Jacob, we often walk away from those encounters with a limp that will remind us of that encounter as we go through the rest of our lives.