TODAY’S SCRIPTURE Genesis 24:1-67
Isaac, his mother’s only child, is 37 years old when his mother Sarah dies at age 127. All of his life, his overprotective mother has shielded him from threat or harm. The promises God made to Abraham are all riding on this young man. However, no one seems to understand his loss.
Afternoons, Isaac would roam the fields meditating and remembering his mother. It is toward evening when Isaac, his head bowed low, lifts up his eyes and sees some camels approaching. Riding one of the camels is a very attractive young woman. She has left her family to follow a trusted servant of Isaac’s father, who had been sent to find him a wife. When Rebekah sees Isaac, she dismounts from the camel and asks who the man is walking to meet them. When she learns that it is Isaac, she takes her veil and covers herself.
In ancient times and for the first 300 years of Christianity, there were no wedding ceremonies, just arrangements between families. No wedding bells, no ceremony, and no rice or cake, just a commitment and a consummation. Isaac takes Rebekah as his wife and loves her. Scripture simply says, “So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death.”
Please consider the emotional bonding that occurs on that tent honeymoon. A broken heart is comforted with an enduring love. Today, the tombs of Isaac and Rebekah sit side by side in Hebron.
Of all the attributes of marriage, there is one that is often overlooked in premarital counseling sessions and marriage seminars. It is the gift of comfort that can come from a loving spouse. When our worlds are falling apart, we want to fall apart beside people with whom we have shared our lives.
When my head blazes with fiery fever and is aglow and burning hot, the coolness of my wife’s palm upon my forehead is more comforting to me than the touch of any doctor or nurse on the face of this earth. Thank God for marriage.
Today, I will…think of a time when you witnessed one marriage partner comforted through the loving embrace of his or her spouse.