Hello my dear
Please receive today’s Holy Nougat
“But Esau ran to meet him, hugged him, fell on his neck and kissed him—and they wept.” Genesis 33:4 TLV
That was not the welcome home which Jacob expected. Even having prayed and gotten peace; he didn’t expect Esau to receive him so enthusiastically. It could be that Esau simply missed his twin over the twenty years apart. We don’t know for sure. But Esau had changed. Enough to have realized that his previous marriages had disappointed his parents and to have appeased them by marrying on of Ishmael‘a daughter’s. Enough to have made peace with himself and more importantly with God.
And that’s what truly matters. When we find true peace with God, it is easier to be at peace with each other. It was a lot to forgive: loss of the spiritual inheritance (not the physical inheritance like I’d suggested); a ‘blessing’ that subordinated him to his younger brother; placed his servants under his brother’s care; and also saw him as living by the sword until he would eventually be independent of Jacob. And that did not include Esau’s loss of firstborn rites of divine favor and promise.
None of that mattered when he saw his brother. As one who had experienced unmerited grace, he was also able to extend grace to his brother. The one who kind of wished him dead, plotted against him and stole what was supposed to have been his! The only brother, his twin whom he had intended to kill. Only grace could have softened his heart.
The same grace that we need to genuinely receive the Jacobs back in our lives; despite how they might have treated us. Although Jesus doesn’t actually mention forgiveness; it is implicit in the Sermon on the Mount in the Beatitudes. Jesus describes that as a blessing in Matthew 5; You are blessed when folks mock and disdain and abuse us and lie on us for the sake of the Gospel. Rejoice and be very happy …
I think that the grace to be God’s emissary to another can only be extended when we ourselves understand ourselves to be recipients of God’s Grace. And that begins with counting our blessings. May we be open to all God has in store for us and be appreciative of all we have received.
In Christ’s love and grace . . .
