Mom came back 2 days early from her trip to nowhere. She never told me where she went, and I felt I shouldn’t ask. I haven’t spoken to Ivan since before his spring concert. Every time I call his cell I get a busy signal, as if he’s blocking me or something. When I knock on his door he never answers. Could all this be because of his promise to Stephanie? I don’t know where all of this distance is coming from, but I don’t care. As long as I got Rell, I could care less about them. Steph can have her way with Ivan and his friends.
That night mom told me a bed time story for the first time in ten years. She told me it was a bible story… A bible story about me… It was the story of Jacob. She knew I wasn’t much of a bible reader but she was so enthusiastic in reading it to me. She made me a cup of hot chocolate and told me to get comfortable on the couch while she read to me. I didn’t understand why she was acting this way, but then again she’s just a mother… We sat together and she turned to the book of Genesis, the very beginning of the bible.
“Now honey” she said in a soft voice. “You never know what blessings life can give you, even if you’re the poorest of folks. Things happen for a reason now. You may think you’ll never get what you want, but someday what you want is coming to you. I was looking through this old bible here and I found a story I would like to read to you.”
Mom held the bible in her lap and started reading. The story started out plain and simple. Isaac marries a woman named Rebekah and has two sons, Jacob and Esau. Now Esau was the oldest child. He was strong and rash, a hunter of sorts. Jacob on the other hand was a quiet momma’s boy… Now as time passed Esau became the typical bad boy. Long story short, Esau screws up and Jacob received his father’s inheritance though second born. Esau gets mad and plans to kill his brother. Jacob found out and ran away. After she read this I interrupted her.
“Funny thing mom, I have no brother or an inheritance at that. Why is reading this so important?”
“Patients boy. Story isn’t over yet. There is a lesson to be learned.” She continued reading.
So Jacob went away to the land of the Orientals and found a place to stay with a man named La’ban, his mother’s brother. La’ban had two daughters, Leah the oldest and Rachel the youngest. The eyes of Leah had no luster, whereas Rachel had become beautiful in form and beautiful of countenance. Jacob was in love with Rachel. He made sort of a contract with La’ban saying that he would give seven years of servitude to him in exchange for Rachel. So Jacob proceeded to serve seven years for Rachel, but in his eyes they proved to be like some few days because of his love for her. At the end of the seven years Jacob was tricked into marrying Leah instead of Rachel, because she was first born. Jacob had to serve an additional seven years for Rachel. Mom stopped there. She closed the bible and looked at me.
“So what do you think about that? Wasn’t that a nice story?”
“No! That was complete nonsense.” I came off more agitated than I should have been.
“Mom, I don’t get what’s so important about this story. The guy gets screwed over the entire time. His brother tried to kill him and he’s married to a woman he doesn’t love. What nonsense is this?”
“The story is far from over dear. I just stopped here for today so you could take in what was read. It’s not about what Jacob didn’t have but what he was given. He was given his father’s inheritance because he remained a loyal son. He found true love and was able to survive because of it. He slaved fourteen years for Rachel. And each year was like a day gone by until he could finally have her.”
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