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.