Recently, I happened upon the story of Rebekah in Genesis 24. Here Abraham sends his servant back to his home country to find Isaac a wife. When I think of this servant and his very important assignment, my heart goes out to him, as I can’t imagine having the job of finding someone I work for a wife! A puppy, maybe… but not a WIFE. Anyway, thankfully the servant knows what to do with this kind of request. When he gets to his destination, He PRAYS. He prays that God would show him kindness (vs. 12) and that the girl that he asks to give him a drink of water, would not only say yes to that request, but that she would also offer to give his camels a drink of water too.
And lo and behold, before he finishes his prayer, this beautiful girl, named Rebekah, enters the scene. The servant, hoping for the best, trusting God, RUNS up to the girl and asks for a drink. And she responds by giving him… a drink! Now I can only imagine that as the servant was drinking, he was thinking something that went like this, “Oh please, oh please, let her ask about the camels, let her ask about the camels, come on God, she needs to ASK ABOUT THE CAMELS!”
And Rebekah, after he had finished drinking, says, “Oh hey, I’ll get water for your camels too.” Of course, said servant is in awe, barely containing his excitement, and so hopeful that this wife hunting thing is about to come to an end. And, as you might know, it does. The rest is history. Rebekah ends up going with the servant and gets to meet her husband, Isaac.
As I read this story, one thing really jumped out at me, and it was the answer to this question: As the servant sat there, guzzling down the water, what was Rebekah doing? I mean, it’s not so uncommon to give a guy a drink that asks for it. Most people would do that, especially when they have water in their hand. But, it’s what Rebekah was doing while the man was drinking that I believe is more uncommon today.
The answer: Very simply, Rebekah LOOKED UP. She looked up, not at the sky, but rather at what was going on around her. She looked away from her own busy schedule, from her own routine, and began noticing a situation outside of herself. Man on journey. Camels. Hmmm… maybe they’re thirsty too. In order for her to ask about those camels, she had to NOTICE their existence. And you can’t do that if you don’t look up, look around, and begin to think, hmmm… how can I help?
Now, I don’t know too much about camels, but I’m fairly certain, too, that camels can drink A LOT of water. Rebekah wasn’t concerned about the inconvenience or the work that it would take to make sure each of those camels got plenty to drink. She wasn’t afraid of the inconvenience of kindness. She was just ready to help.
So true of today’s society, with so many cell phones that do so many things, and provide us with so many opportunities to never look up and notice those around us. I mean we have email to check, Facebook to check, Twitter to check, Snapchat, and Instagram, and you name it… We all have challenges we face, things we’ve got to do, groceries we’ve got to buy, appointments to make. But in the rush of a thousand things to do, one of the most life changing decisions we might make would be to slow down enough to look up from the busyness of our routine, and ask, “How can I help?” Or begin to think, “Hmmm… I wonder what kind of day they’ve had? How can I lighten their load? How can I brighten their day”
Kindness can look a thousand different ways. A smile, a phone call, going in the kitchen and washing a stack of dishes, opening the door, listening to a story, cooking a meal, taking a moment to pray for someone, etc. BUT- kindness won’t happen if you don’t stop what you’re doing, look up away from your life for a moment, and begin to take notice of the world around you. Someone is certainly waiting on YOUR kindness today! And the cool thing about this story, is Rebekah’s heart of kindness, her awareness of a situation around her, ended up changing her whole entire life’s history. God, not only used her to be an answered prayer, but she met her husband. She became, literally, the mother of Israel. And really, we’re in 2017, still talking about her today.
Look up. You’ll forever be glad you did. And so will someone else.
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