My Rachel
By Elin Henderson
“Now Jacob loved Rachel; so he said, ‘I will serve you seven years for Rachel’… And he served with Laban still ANOTHER seven years.”
Genesis 29:18,30b (NKJV)
This is probably one of the most beautiful stories of love and devotion in the Bible. Jacob’s love at first sight turns into a fourteen-year price to be with the one he loves! Devotion serves seven years, love and determination serves another seven.
Have you ever found yourself in a place where you desperately want what is in front of you, but yet it is just out of reach? You wait for the right moment, fulfill the enormous requirements, reach out to embrace your “Rachel” only to have it snatched away and another period of waiting added to your devastated heart.
I believe we all have had to face or will face our “Rachels” at some point or another - - being told to “wait” again after fulfilling what we considered to be the agreement. The emotions that spill out of a situation like this cannot be easily put into words.
I am facing a “Rachel” in my life right now. After six hard years of study, I face an evaluation that could declare the end of my need for constant language study and the beginning of full-time ministry. But, God could also say, “Serve me another six years of study.” The question for me is, Am I willing? After giving what I feel is enough only to have God ask for more, Am I willing? It requires a faith that sees past the human emotion and human desire, and into the perfect will of God.
The truth is that none of us can answer the “Am I willing?” questions until our time has come to face our “Rachel.” What will our response be when the thing we want most is withheld for another seven years? I pray that God will strengthen the faith of each one of us as we learn more about Him, become more like Him, and fall more in love with Him. So much so that, if He gives us what we desire after the allotted wait time, we can rejoice in Him, but if He says, “Wait a little longer…serve a little longer,” we can keep on serving and rest in His timing!
GOING DEEPER:
Can you think of any other stories in Scripture where the wait seemed interminable and the cost outrageous but the individual would not relinquish hope and faith? What does God want you to learn and apply from their stories?
FURTHER READING:
Isaiah 40:31; Psalms 27:14
Oakwood’s missionaries Elin Henderson and her husband Phil serve as church planters with New Tribes in Mozambique, Africa. Elin is mother to eleven-year-old Callie and eight-year-old Elias.
