Ordinary days and times. They can be tiresome if you don’t
feel appreciated or loved. Rachel faced days of frustration and rage because
she couldn't do the one thing she really wanted. She couldn’t get pregnant and
have a son. Rachel knew she was her husband’s favorite. She is the one he
worked seven years for her brother to marry. He probably was none too happy to
find her sister Leah in the marriage tent. Still, she fretted, and even blamed
Jacob (Genesis 30:1-3). Rachel’s great sorrow was that she had no children. So
she ‘gave’ her maid to Jacob in order to claim any children that woman bore. It
seems to have been a relatively common practice in ancient societies. Sort of
an early form of surrogate mother, except that the maids or slave women had no
choice in the matter.
How often do we compete with others who we think are prettier
or more gifted or have nicer things? Rachel and Leah’s years of competition
resulted in a dysfunctional family dynamic and jealousy among all the sons of
Jacob. Rachel’s first born is sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers
because they were sure that their father ‘loved him best.’
It’s an age-old problem. Jesus faced it among his disciples.
In Luke 9:46-48 we hear an argument started among the disciples as to which
of them would be the greatest. Jesus, knowing their thoughts, took a little
child and had him stand beside him. Then he said to them, “Whoever welcomes
this little child in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me welcomes the
one who sent me. For it is the one who is least among you all who is the
greatest.”
Jesus points to a child as the example of one who doesn’t
compete for position and is content with simply being a child, loved by their
parents. Philippians 2:3-4 councils that we should Do nothing out of rivalry
or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.
Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the
interests of others.
The least is the greatest says Jesus and Paul adds that we
should look out for the interests of others. That philosophy, and theology, has
often gotten lost in our society where we try to have the biggest and best
because that’s what the media and commercials urge us to work for.
Ordinary days and times look different depending on your perspective. A Facebook post by a friend who works with the homeless community really struck me. He says, "On my last stop at a park, I see a mother with a new born baby on a blanket. “Hi,” I call out. “What is your little one’s name? He is beautiful.”
“Trevor,” she calls out putting one hand on his body as
though to reassure herself that he is breathing.
I get out of the car to haul food and supplies over to her.
“Do you have what you need for Trevor?”
“Yes, the hospital gave us a bunch of stuff before I left. I
have a friend who says we can sleep in her garage at night so we will be okay.
My boyfriend didn’t want me to have the child and told us to get out of his
apartment a week ago but I wanted someone who would love me.”
I tend to zone out commercials, but if you really listen to the message, they are selling fear of not enough. They are sowing discontent, which, ta-da, can only be solved by buying their product which is better than similar ones or what you already have. We are told that we are inferior if we don’t have that new car or phone with all the special features. We are threatened with poverty if we don’t invest properly (with just the right company). We are tricked into thinking we can turn back the clock by using this or that potion and cream. All this consumerism and waste leads us to forget that across the globe--and in our neighborhoods--there are people who have a tiny fraction of what we throw away and they feel blessed to have it.
Rachel didn’t have commercials driving her to make
purchases, but she had her own insecurities that brought her into conflict with
her sister and husband. She was willing to die in childbirth just to prove she
was able to bear a son for her husband’s lineage. The homeless woman was
willing to bear her child, even in abject poverty, because she “wanted someone
who would love me.”
Even though I think of myself as frugal, I still fall
easily into the trap of getting something I don’t really need simply because
it’s ‘cute’ or ‘on sale.’ I rarely stop to ask if I really need it, where
the product was made and under what conditions and if the process perpetrates
injustice. That is something I need to work on, and I need to learn to ask
pertinent questions. If I learn to pause before purchase and ask if I really
need the item, I might discover there is contentment in simplicity and that I
don’t have to have the newest and best. Then there might be enough and more for
the least of these who truly don’t have anything.
Can I/you find a way to think of the interests of others when it comes to whether I/you need the next biggest and best thing? Might something smaller or simpler do just as well and leave more for the next person, next child of God?
