Children and Grandchildren

Genesis 31

Children and grandchildren are a blessing, but they can also break your heart.  Everytime I read of Rachel stealing her father's household gods, something inside me wants not to hear about it.  I don't want to hear about a daughter stealing from her father.  I am glad that Laban didn't find out; not for her sake, but for his.  Two of his daughters and a whole bunch of his grandchildren are going off wandering in the wilderness -sneaking away without even saying good-bye.  And my hearts cries out for him.  To be sure he had demanded a lot from his son-in-law, Jacob.  But, still I can feel his pain at such a loss.   I feel his pain and am thankful that he did not have the further heartbreak of knowing that one of his daughters would steal from him.  I wonder how he would have felt if he had found the gods and the promise that Jacob made to him was fulfilled and Rachel were put to death.

Those objects that Rachel stole also concern me.  She took household gods - false gods.  She had been married to Jacob about 20 years, so why were these gods so important for her to take?  Did she also worship them or did she just take them to spite her father? 

In the end the story ends well or as well as can be expected.  I suspect that Laban will always feel an emptiness in his life remembering how he was disrespected by his daughters.  But, Jacob and Laban do enter into a treaty of reconciliation - an agreement to not harm one another.  And... Laban gets to bless and kiss his daughters and grandchildren goodbye as they depart into the wilderness for Jacob's home.

Children grow up and they do leave home.  Will they give their fathers - their parents - the opportunity to kiss them and bless their journeys?  How sad it is that some cannot leave with respectful reconciliation when situations have not been good.  How sad it is that some would prefer to leave in a huff and puff rather than with a kiss and a blessing from their parents.  How sad it is when some parents don't care how they go as long as they go.

God meant children - God meant family - to be a blessing - but - often false gods (and we are our own false gods most of the time) get in the way of family.