More Important than Differences!

A New Start – Day 10

I love my brothers and sisters, though we do not always see eye to eye.  I have actually walked out on a conversation in the family before because I did not want to get into a political argument.  I am not the best at maintaining our family relationships, but they are very important to me – far more important than our differences.

Chapters 30 and 31 of Genesis recount the somewhat rocky relationship between Jacob and his father-in-law Laban.  Laban treats Jacob almost like a slave.  Jacob manipulates Laban’s flock that he is watching so that he becomes more wealthy.  Finally, Jacob leaves (at the command of the Lord) with his wives and children and flocks without letting Laban say goodbye to his daughters and grandchildren.  This ticks Laban off so that he angrily pursues Jacob.

Here’s the part that surprises me.  In Genesis 31:29, Laban says that God spoke to him the night before he caught up with Jacob and told him not to harm Jacob.  In this story, everyone is being selfish and looking after their own interests.  Just as things are about to come to a head, God steps in and calms things down.  Laban and Jacob come to an agreement and repair their fragile relationship.

Do you have people with whom you do not get along?  Perhaps there are those who you avoid because they drive you nuts.  I believe that God would say through this and other passages that relationships are more important than differences.  Let’s move beyond what drives us apart and seek to repair and nourish the relationships with family and friends.  How to do this is far more complicated than I could begin to cover here, not to mention that it is way out of my level of expertise.  What I can say is that we need to keep in touch with each other.  In the next week or so, I hope to call the siblings that I did not get to talk to over the holidays.  I suggest that you do something similar.