Today I've read about how Jacob dressed up to get blessing, and how we are all Jacobs dressing up to be someone else to be loved. And it is a beautiful thought.
But it made me think my first
feelings when I was young when I read that story. I did not care about Jacob at
all. I cared about Esau. I remembered how I ached for Esau(I am first born myself). I felt terrible for
him tricked that way. I felt sorry for him, for the mistake he had made.
Selling his birthright like that for a bowl of stew.
The blessing meant for him as
first born was given to Jacob.
My heart ached when he begged
for Isaac, his father, to bless him too, Isaac blessed him, but it was not the same blessing. In fact, the bible said, it was an inferior blessing. How unfair that was! How sorry.
I can imagine Esau's rage, and how Jacob flee.
As the story progressed
(Jacob wrestling with the angel and begging for blessing) I was hoping for
something to happen to restore the blessing back to Esau, which was rightfully
his in the beginning. But it didn't happen.
And just like that, one
decision, one bad choice, changed everything.
Sometimes we take things
lightly; the blessing of God, the blessing of parents, the blessing of old
people, the blessing of others.
I heard news of a celebrity
posting things in Instagram shaming her parents. It just didn’t feel right for
me.
Children, shaming your parents in front of other people do not make you look good.
Do not be such an ass and do not do things that will give your parents reason to curse you. Instead be a person that others want to bless. Or better yet be a person that wants to bless others.
Children, shaming your parents in front of other people do not make you look good.
Do not be such an ass and do not do things that will give your parents reason to curse you. Instead be a person that others want to bless. Or better yet be a person that wants to bless others.
There is one great tradition
that we Filipinos are slowly losing, and that is “Pagmamano”. I remembered when
I was young, how we little children would go to our Parents and ask for their
hands to put it in our forehead to bless us before we leave home and after we
return home. I remembered how we ask for the hands of older people to bless us
every time we meet them. Now it is replaced by beso-beso (kiss in the cheek),
which is also good, but I just love the act of humility involved in asking a
hand to bless us. Let us try to uphold and keep that tradition and teach it to
our little children.
Now, going back to the story, I like how it all ends, Jacob learning his lesson, wresting with an Angel of God to get a blessing, and he got what he wanted. I have to give it to Jacob being persistent like that, giving importance to blessings.
And I still love Esau because despite what was lost of him, in the end, he had
moved on, forgiven Jacob, embraced him as a brother and went in peace.
