In the movie industry they have a phrase – the “meet cute.” It is a term used to describe a scene in which the man and the woman meet each other for the first time, future lovers who don’t yet know each other. For example, when Gene Kelly jumps into Debbie Reynolds’ car in Singing in the Rain. When Hugh Grant spills orange juice on Julia Roberts in Notting Hill. When Claudette Colbert finds herself sharing a bus seat with Clark Gable in It Happened One Night. In countless romantic comedies there is a meet cute. And why not? Because even in real life there is the meet cute.
I love to ask people how they met their spouses – everyone has a story. Kim and I met in a restaurant where I was working. The man I was dating at the time, Doug, struck up a conversation with him at the bar and introduced us, and the rest is history.
There is always an element of chance, of luck, in the story of “us.”
But it is not just luck – there is also ingenuity, design. Sometimes it is there from the get-go, like Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve. In the dining room of a cruise ship, she watches Henry Fonda in her compact mirror, waiting for him to walk her way, then slyly sticks out her foot to trip him.
In life and in love we all need a little luck and a little design to find our way. Abraham’s servant needed both when he went out in search of a wife for Isaac.
If there is one thing we know for certain, it is that Isaac deserves to have something good come his way. After what he went through on Mount Moriah, the young man deserves to be comforted and loved. And so, in his final days, Abraham seeks to ensure that his son will not be left alone; that he will love and be loved. He asks his servant to swear that he will do this thing for him.
The servant set out with the intention of following Abraham’s instructions to the T. The details are left for him to figure out, however, so he designs a little plan. The first part is this: he will wait at the well for a young woman to come.
It is worth saying that, in the Old Testament, a well is often the site of a meet cute. When a man and a woman meet at a well it means that love birds will be singing. The servant is making a rather obvious choice when he chooses the well. Good for him.
The second part of his plan is this: he will wait for a young woman to approach the well, and if she offers to give him water, and also water his camels, she will be the one. It’s a clever design, isn’t it? On the one hand, it is a way of asking God for a clear sign – to show him the woman that God has chosen for Isaac. On the other hand, it is designed to ensure that, whether God is guiding this encounter or not, the woman he chooses for Isaac will be hardworking, generous, and hospitable.
And so, finding her, he proceeds on to her home, to speak with the men of the family, and here is where our reading begins. He explains his purpose and asks that Rebecca be allowed to be married to Isaac. The men agree to his request, and when she is asked, Rebecca does not hesitate to agree also.
She has an adventurous spirit; she gamely says goodbye to her family and follows this stranger to a new land to meet the man who will become her husband. And, of course, they lived happily ever after. The end.
Yet – true to form, there are so many ways this could have gone bad. If no young woman who met his requirements had appeared at the well. If her kin had said no to the servant’s request. If Rebecca, herself had said no.
And once they returned home, there are more ways things could have gone wrong. If Isaac had not appreciated her. If Rebecca had not loved him. If there was no tenderness, no comfort in their union. Yes, it takes some design but it also takes some luck –
Or is it just luck? If there is one thing the scriptures tell us, from beginning to end, it is that God’s hand is in all things. And when something appears to be luck, might it actually be the designing hand of God?
The stories of our lives; when we look back on them, we might see that they are made up of various elements, patches of various colors, sizes, and textures. They include some of our own design, some of the designs of others with whom we cross paths, who have an impact on our lives, and the designs of God, who is ever present with us, through the ups and downs and meanderings of our days.
From the beginning when God began creating this beautiful ordered world and made us co-creators with God; through the desert wanderings, years of barrenness while those who watch and wait might hear the message from God that they need to hear; through the scheming, through the struggles and difficult relationships when God manages to make something out of our messes in spite of us; through it all God’s creative Spirit is with us. Through our hopes and our fears, and the years of wondering what the heck we are doing, God’s creative Spirit is with us. Through our worst moments and the moments of our greatest faithfulness, God’s creative Spirit is right there with us, partnering with us, because there is always more creative work to be done.
And there is more creative work still to be done.
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