Every baby is beautiful to its mother and every child’s drawing is a masterpiece to parents.   Love enables us to delight in that which the critic despises.  Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, because beauty is not always to be observed on the surface.  Though, perhaps, there is some notion of objective beauty, it is the subjectivity of the beholder that grasps and gasps at a beauty that transcends mere presentation.  No subjective lens adds loveliness to the unlovely like love.

The constant refrain of the Bible is that the “steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.”  Nothing shakes it loose.  Nothing causes Him to fall out of love with those he chooses to set his love upon.  The Bible is full of shady characters.  Even its human heroes often think, speak and act in cringeworthy ways.  Yet the love of the Lord is steadfast.  The Hebrew word often translated ‘steadfast love’ is the Old Testament word for ‘grace.’

The power of God’s grace shines through every page of the Scriptures.  This can be seen dramatically in the lives of the Old Testament patriarchs.  When we read Genesis 30, the only thing more shocking than the behavior of Jacob’s family is the persistent kindness of God.  This chapter is a passage full of scheming and counter-scheming.   Leah and Rachel seek to outdo one another in  baby-making and Laban and Jacob work to get the upper hand over one another.   The Covenant Keeping God is only marginally acknowledged and rarely sought, yet he pervades this passage with his gracious providence and blessing to a family that seems utterly undeserving of it.   And that is the point.  God is a god of grace and gratitude, not works and wages.

Join us this Lord’s Day, January 21, as we examine the mixed up story of Jacob’s family in Genesis 30 and consider how God demonstrates steadfast love toward us, even when we are not looking for it.  We meet from 5:00 – 6:30 pm in The Commons at St. Andrews Anglican Church at 8300 Kanis Rd in Little Rock.  Click here for directions. Come with a friend you and join us for fellowship and conversation. We look forward to seeing you there.