Albert Einstein has an amazing quote: “Put a hand on a hot stove for a few seconds and it feels like an hour. Spend an hour with a pretty girl and it feels like a few seconds. That’s relativity.”
This is exactly how Jacob felt when he worked 7…er, 14…years for the right to marry Rachel.
Originally tricked by Laban to work just seven years, he woke up on his wedding day to find that his wife was her older sister, Leah. When Laban told him Rachel would cost an additional seven years, he didn’t hesitate.
The reason why is one of the sweetest verses in all of Scripture: “So Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days because of his love for her.”
Cue the *awwwww* sound.
Most of us feel this way when we first meet our future spouse. Time flies by. A quick evening phone call to say goodnight turns into a three-hour talk-a-thon, ended by both parties saying, “no, you hang up!”
But remember, Jacob doesn’t just feel this way at the beginning. This is how Jacob felt for the first 14 years of knowing Rachel! That’s not a “honeymoon period”; that’s full-on infatuation.
Verses like this make me stop and ask myself if I still feel this way about my wife (I do). I’m not saying you still need to have the gooey butterflies after 30 years, but they should still cause you to pause a second when they walk in the room, at least.
It’s easy to see why Jacob loved Rachel, too. She was a shepherdess, fiercely competitive (at least, with her sister), and drop-dead gorgeous, if we’re to believe Genesis 29:17. Jacob literally bawls when he sees her for the first time (Genesis 29:11).
Do you have a love like that? If not, the answer is not to find someone new (if you’re already married). It’s to go back and remember the things that made you fall in love with them in the first place.
There was something about that person that made you want to attach yourselves to them for the rest of your life. If you’ve forgotten what it is, spend time trying to remember.
