Unwelcome Surprises

"So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her. Then Jacob said to Laban, "Give me my wife. My time is completed..." So Laban brought together all the people of the place and gave a feast. But when evening came, he took his daughter Leah and gave her to Jacob. When morning came, there was Leah!" Genesis 29

Unwelcome Surprises
By Rev. William Dohle

There are some things I just can't imagine!

I can't imagine working for my father-in-law for seven years like Jacob did. Don't get me wrong, I loved my father-in-law dearly when he was alive, but I just can't imagine working to win the hand of my wife. I can't imagine being happy with that arrangement.

I can't imagine the joy Jacob felt when he would finally be wed to his wife. After seven years of courtship, finally they would be wed!

And I really can't imagine his horror when he discovered the woman he thought was Rachel was actually her sister, Leah!

Talk about unwelcome surprises!

We've all faced such surprises before. Some of us more than others. Any news that is both unexpected and unwanted can be called an unwelcome surprise. And we face them all the time!

Some of the more dramatic ones are:

Surprise! You're fired!
Surprise! You have cancer!
Surprise! I want a divorce!
Surprise! You're not getting into the college you wanted to.
Surprise! You did terrible on that test!

Even some ordinary things can become unwelcome surprises.

If you're not expecting a child: SURPRISE! You're pregnant!
Or... Surprise! I just got transferred! Honey, we're moving to China!
Or you're kids come home to tell you: "Surprise! I need $250 to go with the band! And I need it by tomorrow!"

Think back in your own life. We all have experienced your share of unwelcome surprises!

That is why we can look to Jacob's life and take hope. For, as bad as it was to see Leah in Rachel's place, God worked even that for the good of his people. For Leah, the unwelcome bride of Jacob, becomes the mother of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Isschar, and Zebulun, six ancestors of the tribes of Israel! If it wasn't for Leah and this unwelcome surprise, none of this would have happened! It wouldn't!

But through this unwelcome surprise, God was able to do two things. He was able to provide a mother for the men who would found these tribes. And he was able to teach Jacob some humility. For Jacob, the one who deceived his brother Esau twice, is now deceived by his uncle. The tables have been turned. And Jacob learns some humility as he works for another seven years to have Rachel as his wife.

We too can see our unwelcome surprises as learning experiences. Maybe not while they're happening, but certainly after. For God's world doesn't stop when life surprises us, but God himself works everything out for good for those who love him, who are each called according to his purpose.

Abba, Father, life surprises us with both the good and the bad. Help us see what comes to us through eyes of faith, trusting in your love for us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Just Like Mom and Dad

When Jacob saw Rachel daughter of Laban, his brother's brother, and Laban's sheep, he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle's sheep. Then Jacob kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud." Genesis 29:10-11

"Just like Mom and Dad!"
By Rev. William Dohle

I love reading the Sunday paper, particularly the Anniversaries. I am amazed at how many people are still married after 50, 60, even 70 years! It's so heartwarming!

I often wonder how they met. What events brought them together? Were they best friends through high school? Did they meet on the swings in elementary school? Or was theirs more a college love story? Was it love at first sight? Or did they need some time to get to know each other? I know there are so many stories locked up in a single anniversary announcement. It would take many days of talking and listening to unpack them all.

And yet I wonder how much of their story their children know. And if they do know the details of how they met and fell in love, how much of that knowledge played into their own relationship?

How did their love for their spouse reflect their parents' love for each other?

We can only imagine how many times Jacob heard the stories of his father, Isaac and his mother, Rebekah, meeting.

"It was by the well," his mother would tell him. "Near where my father watered our sheep. I saw him there talking to our servant when he asked about..."

You can see Jacob listening all the more intently at his mother's words. So focused he was on pleasing his mother.

So, Jacob is sent to his mother's house to find a wife and happens to arrive at the same well at about the same time of day. He is most surprised. "This is just like it was with mom and dad," he thinks. There he happens to talk to the shepherds who mention Rachel, his uncle's daughter. And no sooner than they mention her, she appears! "It's all fitting together," he thinks. "Just like mother said."

No wonder he was stricken! No wonder Jacob fell hopelessly in love. This was it! This is what his parents found in this place. God has truly been good to him!

Jacob's story doesn't go as smoothly as Isaac's did. But we can pause a moment here. Pause at the moment when Isaac is thinking: "Yes! This is just like my parents!" And wonder... have we ever had such moments? Have we ever found ourselves feeling like our life has fallen into place? That someone with some grand purpose or plan has placed us in this place at this time to accomplish this task?

I would wager we've all had rare moments like those we see in the movies. It's what makes us reminisce. It's hidden in the stories we tell each other. How we met. Where we went on our first date. How we proposed to each other.

But these rare moments can be less rare if we focus not on how our parents loved(or did not love) each other, but on how God truly loves us. If we take that love and turn it to our neighbor, then we can have more moments like these where the love of one mirrors the love of another.

St. John writes: "No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us." (1 John 4:12)

When we love others with God's love, we find ourselves at Jacob's well again and again. When we show mercy to other people and forgive them, we remember how God showed mercy to us in this very place and forgave us. When we love those who feel so unlovable, we remember how we felt unlovable and God loved us still. When we reach out to others, giving them what they need from our bounty, we remember how God reached out to us and gave us what we need out of everything.

Remembering God's love for us, we can fall in love with God's creation, just like Jacob fell in love with Rachel at the well and like Jesus falls in love with us.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the love you have poured out on us in Jesus Christ. May we find ourselves in your footsteps, caring for your people even as you have loved us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

God's Living...where?

"How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven." Genesis 28:17

God's Living...where?
By Rev. William Dohle

My daughter has entered the age of pictures. She draws pictures for everything!

Yesterday, Valentine's Day, she had a valentine for everyone. More than one for some of us. On each one there was a picture of our family and her words, written in perfect 1st grader pen. "I love... William, Matthew, Mom, and Dad."

Lynne has a picture for everything!

Tell her to draw her family...and she'll draw us in all our splendor.
Tell her to draw her home...and she'll draw her house.
Tell her to draw the house of God...and she'll draw a picture of her church.

We all have simple images like her in our mind, even as adults. Certain words bring certain images to mind. Just play a game of "Word Association" to discover this to be true.

But what if you were wrong? What if the image you have in your mind doesn't fully describe or contain what the word truly means.

Take this word for example: House of God. In Hebrew the word is : Beth-el. Which means, literally, house of God.

If asked what this means, most of us might draw a church. A building of God. Something with a steeple on it. Something holy.

But what if we're wrong? What if the House of God is someplace surprising?

It certainly was surprising to Jacob. Running away from his brother in the wilderness, living in a foreign land, Jacob lies down on a stone. And there he has a dream. Or rather a vision.

A stairway extends upward into heaven from the place he is laying. And on that stairway the angels of God are ascending and decending on it. And above it stands the Lord who, once again, blesses Jacob saying to him, among other things, "I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go..."

Jacob, awakening from the dream, looks down in shock. Here he was laying in the house of God, in Beth-el, and didn't even know it! He exclaims, "Surely the Lord is in the place and I was not aware of it!"

Of course even after his vision, Jacob doesn't really get it. He sets up a pillar and says : "...this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house."

He still doesn't understand the promise. For God hasn't promised to stay in Beth-el, but to travel with Jacob wherever he goes. And wherever he goes, that becomes the House of God!

We too might fall into Jacob's trap. We think that our congregation, our denomination, our church holds the House of God within it. We "go to church" and "enter the house of God" not realizing that God's house is wherever we are. And where we go, God goes.

So... we go home from church and to our favorite resteraunt, and that becomes God's house.
We travel from there to Target, and that too becomes God's house.
We go home, to our quiet abode, and that too becomes God's house.

Wherever we go, that place becomes God's house, holy because the children of God are there!

If we take this to heart and to its logical conclusion, even places we think are "outside God's house" become dwelling places for God.

The bar we frequent on Friday nights?? Yes! That is God's house.
The theater we attend?? Absolutely! God's house!
Even the cabin or lake that we retreat from life to?? Yes! That too is God's house!

God's house is indeed wherever we are. For, in Christ, God has promised us, as he promised Jacob long ago: "I am with you and will watch over you, wherever you go."

Father in heaven, we thank you for your presence that is always with us and constantly sustaining us. Open our eyes that we might see your presence among us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.