[54] And he and the men who were with him ate and drank, and they spent the night there. When they arose in the morning, he said, “Send me away to my master.” [55] Her brother and her mother said, “Let the young woman remain with us a while, at least ten days; after that she may go.” [56] But he said to them, “Do not delay me, since the LORD has prospered my way. Send me away that I may go to my master.” [57] They said, “Let us call the young woman and ask her.”
(Genesis 24:54-57; Genesis 24:58-59 ESV) [58] And they called Rebekah and said to her, “Will you go with this man?” She said, “I will go.” [59] So they sent away Rebekah their sister and her nurse, and Abraham's servant and his men.
(Genesis 24:54-57; Genesis 24:58-59 ESV)
All day today I could only think of Rebekah. Rebekah, unlike me, never knew her husband before she married him, but there was one thing she did know: it was the Lord's will for her to go with Abraham's servant to be wed with Abraham's son Isaac.
"Rebekah must leave her family and country in an act of faith in order to journey to Canaan and marry Isaac, whom she has never met."1
Her family was not yet ready to part with their daughter, but Rebekah was, and she left her family and homeland to a land she did not know trusting in God and knowing she was to fulfill the purpose for which she was created, to be a wife and bear children, children through which God's promise of a Messiah would continue.
The reason I thought of Rebekah and Isaac's love story is because, just as we can see from the Biblical account how God orchestrated their story, I have seen how God has orchestrated Penn and mine's love story from the beginning, and like Rebekah I too must now leave my family, and country in an act of faith to the man whom I have met and have loved for the past 2 years and a half. Like Rebekah I too am leaving to fulfill the purpose for which I was created.
[20] The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. [21] So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. [22] And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. [23] Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”
[24] Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
And because it is in Christ that I am trusting, i'm leaving everything behind with joy in my heart and peace of mind. Now by this I'm not saying I will not miss my family, because I will, I'm not saying I will not miss my church family, because I will, I'm not saying I will not miss my friends, the food, the culture, the ministry to the women, because I will most definitely miss it all; but I am saying that when that moment comes, I will turn to Christ for strength and lean on Him and my (future) husband for comfort.
