Family meetings – February 15

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 97, 99, [100]; PM Psalm 94, Gen. 31:1-24; 1 John 2:1-11; John 9:18-41

Family meetings. Did you ever convene them? Or were you called to the dining room table to have one? Here’s my wonder of the morning: if you can recall what was discussed, I wonder if you can also point to any effects that conversation had on your day-to-day life.

When I was a kid, we would have some of these conversations about being nice to one another, when we had gotten really heated in our arguments. But there was one such family meeting that sticks out in my memory…the one when we sat in our normal chairs at the round wrought iron table with the glass top. The one when Mom and Dad told us that they were getting divorced.

Family meetings leave me a bit unsettled and fearful. I do not associate them with happy or positive changes. As I read the scriptures for today, there is another family meeting or two that happens. In Genesis 31, Jacob called Rachel and Leah, not around a table, but into the field where his flock was. He had something important to say. The Lord had spoken to Jacob: “Return to the land of your ancestors and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” It was time to move. Things had been tense and beyond toxic with his father-in-law Laban. Laban was controlling, difficult, cunning, and untrustworthy. Jacob says to his wives, “I see that your father does not regard me as favorably as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. You know that I have served your father with all my strength; yet your father has cheated me and changed my wages ten times, but God did not permit him to harm me.” (v. 5-7) As he continued to explain, he also shared that God came to him in a dream and directed him to leave this land and return to the land of his birth.

Much is going on here. Family tension. Upheaval. An impending move. I am struck by Jacob’s words to his wives, when speaking of their father Laban – “God did not permit him to harm me.” God did not allow Laban to strike him or cause bodily harm. There was protection at that visceral level, for wounds and lesions were prone to infection. If afflicted, who would tend the flocks? However, what I hear in this story insidious, emotional torment. While Laban did not physically assault his son-in-law, he perpetuated an environment of mistrust and discomfort…soil that wounds the soul incrementally, sapping the life and love from the bonds of mutuality and commitment. What a painful space to live within.

And so, God broke into a dream, telling Jacob to go home to the land where God protected Isaac. Go home to be among people who are faithful to the Lord. Go home to safety and rest. Just go.

While Laban pursued Jacob, Leah, Rachel, their families and livestock, God came to Laban in a dream and commanded that he “say not a word to Jacob, either good or bad.” God broke into Laban’s proclivity to cajole and convince, control and connive. God said no.

Jacob and his family broke free of the tensions in that destructive dynamic. They turned their hearts to God. The road was not easy, and there still would be challenges ahead. But the result of the family meeting in the field of goats was toward wholeness and with God’s protection. May each of us have such clear, grounded direction this day.

- Katherine+

Questions for Reflection

What comes to mind when you think of a family meeting? Who can you remember being there? Who do you miss today? What do you wish you could have said in that gathering? Where was God in that gathering?

Daily Challenge

Reach out to someone who is family – or like family. Share memories. Invite them to tell you stories. Spend time in quality connection with someone who feels safe and sees you as whole and beautiful.