Behind the Scenes with Rachel

I have always thought of Rachel’s story as a tragic one. If you study her part in Scripture, you might see her from different perspectives. In some cases, she seems like a spoiled child. In others, a thief and a liar. And yet…how did the overarching story of her betrayal and subsequent inability to bear a child shape her character?

For When Life Doesn’t Match Your Dreams, I pursued the theme of betrayal by someone she should have been able to trust. Her father. Weren’t fathers supposed to protect their children? And yet Rachel’s father went behind her back and wed her betrothed husband to her older sister.

I don’t know about you, but I cannot fathom any scenario where that would have been okay with me. And I’m pretty sure Rachel didn’t like it one bit. Her struggle with her sister is enhanced by the constant baby battle of “I’m pregnant and you’re not”.

I remember what it was like to want a baby and be unable to have one. Family members were pregnant one Christmas when I had suffered a miscarriage that year. Jealousy or fear of someone else having the kids you long for is a powerful emotion. But God deals so gently with us in our grief. And eventually God remembered Rachel and gave her Joseph.

But as I wrote her book and gleaned from her story for this nonfiction, I couldn’t get past the feeling that betrayal had to be the greatest loss, her most stark emotion, the one that might have kept her up nights. Her father betrayed her, her sister betrayed her, and when she couldn’t conceive, she could have felt that Jacob and God Himself had betrayed her. Like I said, her tale is pretty tragic.

HAVE YOU BEEN THERE?

HAVE YOU EVER KNOWN BETRAYAL BY SOMEONE WHO HAS PROMISED TO LOVE YOU?

BY THOSE COMMITTED TO YOU?

So many forms of betrayal exist in our world. Just being lied to is a form of betrayal. Unwillingness to forgive or to keep what has been entrusted to us…to stay in a marriage, to love our children well, to be a faithful friend, a kind neighbor…the examples are endless.

What do you do when you face circumstances that leave you reeling? We might not relate to Rachel’s cultural ideals that led to her situation but we can surely relate to her feelings.

WHEN SOMEONE BETRAYS YOUR TRUST OR BREAKS YOUR HEART, WHAT THEN?

I hope you will join me in exploring some of those answers in When Life Doesn’t Match Your Dreams. Rachel’s life might have been tragic on many levels, but she did have Jacob’s love. And sometimes even one thing can be enough to change our hope for the future.

#whenlifedoesntmatchyourdreams #livegrace #rachelsstory #behindthescenes