Genesis 24:14 Let the girl to whom I shall say, “Please offer your jar that I may drink,” and who shall say, “Drink, and I will water your camels”—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac.
It must have been nice to receive direct answers to direct questions. Abraham’s servant wants divine guidance, so he asks for a nice, clear, impossible-to-miss sign. As he is finishing his prayer, Rebekah shows up, waters his camels, and as a plus, turns out to be Abraham’s great-niece. Isaac marries her and loves her, and it’s clear as a bell that the sign was authentic.
Guidance today is a much murkier business. Only once in my life have I ever experienced words forming in my head, giving a direct response to a directly prayed question. It was amazing, but it has never happened that way again.
I don’t know if the servant’s approach—a directly asked question leading to an easily interpreted sign—happens all that often. Perhaps it does for some people. For me, at least, it seems that blundering around is part of the process. Stumbling along, feeling my way down the path, tripping and getting back up, seems to be my undignified way of lurching toward Zion.
