before I had finished praying

Monday July 7th, Genesis 24: 45 “Before I had finished praying in my heart, I saw Rebekah coming out with her water jug on her shoulder. She went down to the spring and drew water. So I said to her, ‘Please give me a drink.’ 46 She quickly lowered her jug from her shoulder and said, ‘Yes, have a drink, and I will water your camels, too!’ So I drank, and then she watered the camels. I like that “before I had finished praying” line. We often think that God answers prayers, which is a way of putting us in charge. I wonder if perhaps, God sometimes leads us to pray into the answers God has already given. Thus putting God in charge from the beginning. In this text, Rebekah can be seen by some as a poor subservient woman. This vision would take her out of context of time and place and put her in 21st century America. She is a person who is hospitable in heart. Would that more children of God could be hospitable of heart. Many of us learn the opposite through the years. We learn to take for ourselves and to make sure we take care of old number one, and then make the mistake of thinking we are old number one. Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow, and reminds us that the first shall be last and the last shall be first. This is not begrudgingly taking you place stuff, this is happy hospitality stuff. The difference is in the heart.