Our God-thoughts are about such relationships and how we might treat each other better.
Experience of family begins at birth. We arrive helpless and needy and if we are fortunate we are nurtured by loving parents. We do nothing to deserve that love. As Jesus assured us, God's grace is like that only better, as good as love could be; we are children of a divine parent who loves us unconditionally and does not have favourites. In Jacob's family, the love was conditional. If you were the firstborn even by a few seconds, you got your father's blessing. If you were the younger son, you would have to make your own way. If you were a daughter you might be traded for the labour of a shepherd to tend your father's flock. We can do better than Jacob's family.
But we don't remain infants forever. As we grow and mature, it isn't enough to be loved. We have to learn how to behave, to get along with others and stay out of trouble. Early on, parents make rules to keep us safe and avoid conflict. We have to obey the rules or else suffer the consequences. God as lawgiver and judge is like a nurturing parent teaching us how to get along. Jacob and his family didn't have a rule about being honest and fair, and as a result they were often in conflict. We can do better than Jacob's family.
But there is more. Rules are simple enough for a child to obey. As you know, life is not simple and no rule can fit every situation. The most effective action will be custom-made for the occasion. This requires us as mature adults to be our own law-giver and judge, our own controlling parent, to find in ourselves the will and way for doing good. This is why we struggle with God whom we experience within us as the Holy Spirit. There is rarely an obvious choice between right and wrong. It is more often a choice between one good thing and another which differ only in who benefits and by how much. Goodness is ambiguous, and like Jacob we wind up wrestling with God to decide what we should do.
We are sometimes the needy child, and sometimes the youngster who obeys the rules or not and learns from the consequences. But at our best, we struggle as Jacob did to do what is good.
Embrace the struggle.
We are living a miracle.
The universe works somewhat predictably.
We have a say in what happens next.
God is in us with this.
I was interested in your reference of Jacob's dysfunctional family. I recall once reading Karen Armstrong's book on Genesis. She spoke of this very thing i.e. just how very messed up were these so-called founding fathers of faith.
ReplyDeleteI remember the discussion of Isaac, who really didn't amount to much when you think about it. And Jacob really was a rascal, wasn't he?
And yet, here they are, muddling along just like the rest of us.
I wonder what stories our kids will be telling about us in years to come. Probably shouldn't spend too much time with that thought.
Thanks for keeping up with the struggle of your blog Dennis. Please don't stop thinking and writing. I'll be reading, if not always responding.
I don't know how to stop thinking and writing, though there have been times when I would rather go to bed. (That's an allusion to your poem, Poet's Sabbath, which you let me see back in March.) When I give in to sleep, I wind up thinking and writing in dreams. It's a bother, but it's part of the equipment that came with this model of mind, so I won't complain. Your poem reminds me of a simple fact: when you choose to do one thing you choose not to do everything else. I watched a video yesterday of Glen Gould playing the Goldberg Variations. It reminded me of the discipline and sacrifice required to master any skill with such precision. As for me, I can play Happy Birthday from memory, and that will have to be enough. What I write is destined for the basket. How nice that you read it before it got there!
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