Desperate Housewives The Original Series. Episode 1 - Rachel
There are many attributes which are highly sort after by women. Among them are beauty and a great body. Thankfully, this isn't all that we seek but there are whole industries who specialize on focusing on how women look. As if how we look makes us better women or makes us happy.
Rachel one of the founding characters of the nation of Israel and by extension Christianity seemed to have had it all; a body that probably made men double take, beauty, a job and later the affections of a man who would bend over backwards for her.
Fact File:
Name - Rachel
Record/s - Genesis chapters 29 - 35
Occupation - Shepherd, Wife, Mother
Rachel however was not without her faults despite being attractive and having a great love story that would resound through centuries. She got married to a man who adorned her but due to circumstances beyond her control, she had to share her husband with her sister. This understandably led to conflict, jealousy and desperation. Particularly when she was unable to have children but her sister Leah was very fertile. She then used a surrogate to become a mother and had two sons Dan and Naphtali but Leah also uses a surrogate to expand her family.
This unhealthy competition continues and because Jacob (the husband) loves Rachel more, she appears to call the shots and even trades in some plants (mandrakes) for her sister to sleep with Jacob that night! Eventually, Rachel gives birth to a son who is named Joseph and she feels she has one up on her sister.
Meanwhile Jacob and the womens father Laban have disagreements and finally Jacob takes off without a word to his father-in-law. Unfortunately Rachel steals her fathers idols in yet another misguided decision and then lies to cover it up later. Jacob has a patchy history as well which we won't get into. However, Rachels story is cut short somewhat by her death during childbirth on their way to Bethlehem. The child does survive though and is named Benjamin by his father.
I can't tell you how many times I have sighed while writing this and when I was researching the story of Rachel. I changed the title so many times. I settled on the term Desperate to describe this situation because it really was.
We find ourselves in circumstances which are the result of many decisions by many people and sometimes we make embarrassingly bad choices but that doesn't mean God won't remember you like he did Rachel in Genesis 30:22 Then God remembered Rachel; he listened to her and enabled her to conceive.
This is also encouragement for anyone seeking to have a child that God does hear your prayers and knows your desires and we don't have to try to "fix" the situation ourselves like so many before us have tried.
There is plenty more to learn from this Christian Matriarch but I will end my observations here. I urge you to look her up in Genesis 29-35 and learn from her the good and leave the bad as an example not to follow.