before I had finished praying

Monday July 4th, 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 ourselves 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 in which she lived and put her in 21st century America. She is a person who is hospitable in heart and in manner. And though actions may differ, would today that more children of God could be hospitable of heart. Many of us learn the opposite of hospitality through the years. We learn to take for ourselves and to make sure we take care of old number one, it is how we have learned to get ahead in this world. This is a trait we see every day in politics and in business, which more and more are becoming one in the same. This is not the way of being a follower of Christ however. 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.