When morning came, there was Leah! So Jacob said to Laban, "What is this you have done to me? I served you for Rachel, didn't I?" —Genesis 29:25
Leah, Jacob's first wife, not his choice and not part of his plans, can be seen in the Bible as the unloved woman. Perhaps she was unloved by everybody. Jacob didn't love her. She was plain, and Jacob never pretended to notice Leah. So we see Leah was also unloved by her father, because no father would have treated his daughter like that if he cared about the way she felt. Leah was manipulated and controlled by an uncaring father. Can you identify with that?
So why is this story relevant? It is especially relevant to any woman who feels unloved. It could be because of an unhappy relationship with her father. You have felt unloved as long as you can remember because you haven't known a father's love. Perhaps you feel unloved because of an unhappy relationship with a brother or a sister. It could be you feel unloved because of a husband or because of another man who has hurt and rejected you. My word to you is this: God cares about that. Furthermore, this story is relevant not only to women, but also to any man, any husband, any father. If you have been insensitive to a woman's feelings and have underestimated the hurt she feels by her rejection, you may come to appreciate the depth of her pain.
We are all different, and because we do not share the same problems and weaknesses, we may feel it is hard to find someone else who will understand how we feel. The point is that God sees and understands, and to prove it, He sent His Son into the world, who lived on this earth, tempted at every point just as we are, yet He was without sin. And even if no one else understands, Jesus will understand completely. Do you know we can talk to Him and tell Him just what we're feeling? No one ever cared for us like Jesus.
Excerpted from All's Well That Ends Well (Authentic Media, 2005).
