It must have seemed like an odd thing for Abraham to request of his servant. Do not let my son marry any of the local women, but travel all the way back to my homeland and find one of my relatives. The trip from where they were back to the homeland was not merely an afternoon stroll. The trip there and back would have taken several days. Surely the servant would have thought it easier and better to find a wife for Isaac from among the Canaanite women.
Yet the plan was clear, put in the investment of time and effort so that the wife of Isaac can be found. All along the way the servant remains connected with God, and each step of the way God provides clarity. The servant was in a situation of complete trust of God and the plan of God, and he had to push back his own plan.
Walking the journey of marriage provides no shortage of decisions to make. More than once we have had to look at all the options in front of us and choose which way to go. There have even been times when we have made a choice, thought that it was the right choice only to have doors close and discouragement set in.
When we were moving a few years back we began the process of looking at houses to buy. After hours of looking at online sites we found a house that we visited. After the visit we decided to put an offer in, and soon the offer was accepted. We thought we had found the right house, and that we were making the right decision. The bank however had a different opinion. We were unable to secure the funding for the house, and the deal fell through. In addition to leaving only weeks to find a place to live, we were confused and upset about the path not working out.
A place was found for us to rent for a year, then we were able to find a house in the community we truly wanted to live. Everything worked out and we purchased the house and have called it home ever since. This would not have been possible if we would have purchased the first house. It is not that God caused the bank to not finance the first house, it is clear that God needed to find a way to get us on another path because the one we were about to follow was not the best for us. We were leaning on our own understanding of needing a house to buy at that moment. When all along God had a better house in the community we longed to be in waiting for us.
Leaning on God's understanding is not always easy but it is always best. There will be times of waiting when we want to go, and times of going when we want to wait. Time will come when more effort than we want to expend or have will be required of us. Still we strive to lean more on God's understanding of how to live our life than we lean on our own.
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