The Journey 122

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Read: Genesis 24
A new movie that depicts the stress of people who are engaged and want to get married has been released this week. The name of the move is “The Five-Year Engagement”. The movie is supposed to be a romantic comedy film written, directed and produced by Nicholas Stoller, starring Jason Segel and Emily Blunt and the movie revolves round a story about a couple whose relationship becomes strained when their engagement is continually extended. This movie deals with  several dimension of the present day relationships, where couples have to  deal with so many issues like career adjustment, financial viability, relocation before they plunge into a marital life. Issues like how to bring about balance in both professional success and stable relationships are also concepts that are dealt. I think these issues are  not just subjects to be shown in a movie but these are real life issues. Today in the context of United States unlike in India, the preparations for a wedding takes place at least one year before and the preparations are also very elaborate like the date, the appropriate church where the wedding has to take place, the booking of reception hall and so on. In fact many wedding dates have has been fixed taking into consideration more on the aspect of the availability of halls than any other aspects. Sometimes the clergy is the last on the list of the person who is  to be consulted in with regards to wedding preparations. Thus today what is more prominent is therefore to ask, whether one makes elaborate preparations only for ones wedding day or is the person also preparing himself or herself for the a martial life too, a life where the relationship is going to be life long and thus being a part of God’s plan in ones life. This week we are meditating on the theme “ Transformation in my family life” based on the life of Isaac and Rebecca, from Genesis 27. In our meditations this week we found out that because the spouses were not committed to each other, the problem between them got manifested also among the relationship with their children and the children also had issues with each other. But why did Isaac and Rebecca had issues with each other. When we look at the  Word of God [ Genesis 24], we will find certain unique aspects of both of their life. One of the alarming aspect that we can find in both of their life is the way they both prepared for their marital life  and also the process of marriage. It is Abraham who makes all the arrangements for the wedding and it is Elieazar who is entrusted to find a girl for Isaac. He finds Rebecca as he waits to feed his camel in the town of Nahor. He finds her beautiful and after observing her serving water for him and his camels, Elieazar gives her the gifts that he has brought for her and then he tells the reason of the visit. This is later also conveyed to her household. Rebecca say yes to the proposal brought by Elieazar and without much preparations she begins her journey with Elieazar to the land of Isaac to get married to him. I think Rebecca was attracted by the gifts that was given to her and she does not think much about the person whom is going to marry nor the responsibilities that she is entering into. Even Isaac at this time is mourning the death of his mother and his father feels that if a wife is arranged for his son, he will soon get over the sorrow over the grieving of the death of his mother. Here we find two individuals who decides to marry without understanding the responsibility of marital and family  life and also not willing to  know the person and the character to whom they are getting married. The result of this union is that both of them go through severe stress and the relationship is fragmented. It is this breaking of relationship between Isaac and Rebecca that is seen manifested in all of their family relationship. Transformation in the family happens when the children are serious about not only on how they prepare for the wedding day but also how they view the marital and family life as a whole. Has preparation like seeking God’s will, prayer involved in the selection of ones spouse done before getting married? Hence let every person not only prepare for his/her wedding but also for the institution of marriage and family.

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