Waking with Leah

Some of you have read my earlier post about the beginning of my sabbatical after several delays.  Just prior to beginning my sabbatical my mother died and my father moved to Southern California.  This has obviously taken many hours that were “supposed” to be taken up with spending time with Sharon and my children, reading, writing, praying, enjoying my family, resting.  All of these I love or enjoy.

As the hours spent getting my father settled and his paperwork updated were beginning to subside my mother-in-law, with whom we live, was diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer and was admitted to Kaiser Hospice last Friday.  We have been adjusting medications, sleeping arrangements, meeting the staff, updating her caregivers and generally focusing on how best to help Anina prepare for exiting this life and entering the life to come.  (On January 1 my oldest daughter asked Anina what she wanted to do in 2014.  Anina replied she wanted to be with Jesus.  It is likely she will get what she wanted.)

As I was processing with Sharon this additional pull away from my plans for sabbatical I acknowledged that at least my commitment of time to family during this season is not impacting the rest of the EFCA West team because they had already planned for me to be unavailable to them for 13 weeks.  That alone is a gift from God.

The story, the metaphor, that came to mind late yesterday was that of Jacob, Rachel and Leah.  Rachel was beautiful and Leah, it seems, was less so. Eugene Peterson translates the description this way, “Leah had nice eyes, but Rachel was stunningly beautiful.” (Genesis 29:17 The Message)  As you remember, Jacob worked seven years in order to marry Rachel, but her father, Laban, substituted Leah sometime late in the festivities. Jacob awoke that first morning, no doubt having already consummated the marriage, with Leah at his side, not Rachel. After complaining to Laban, Jacob works more years to eventually marry Rachel.

What Jacob seems to miss in his own story, but which Moses gives as an eternal perspective, is that Leah turned out to be the fruitful wife.  Leah gave Jacob six sons.  Rachel only two. Moses tells us that ^“When GOD [YHWH] realized that Leah was unloved, he opened her womb. But Rachel was barren. (Genesis 29:31 The Message)

We can discuss another time the propriety of multiple wives and conniving fathers-in-law but the point still is that God, as He so often does, took an unexpected and unplanned situation and brought fruit from it.

There are moments when this sabbatical feels like waking with Leah.  I worked my seven years for a beautiful Rachel.  An ideal.  A fantasy.  Something that I found very appealing and easy to love.

What I have awakened to is Leah, the outwardly less appealing bride with the fruitful womb.  Not the sabbatical I worked for but the sabbatical given me by the Father of sabbaticals.  I was hoping for the stunningly beautiful sabbatical.  What I have been given is the sabbatical with nice eyes who, if I will embrace her, can be very fruitful.