READ: GENESIS 29:16-35; COLOSSIANS 3:12; 1 PETER 2:9

I went through my first heartbreak in high school when a boy I liked chose another girl over me. Have you ever had something like that happen to you? Maybe a friend is favoring another friend over you, or maybe, like me, you’ve experienced rejection from someone you like.

Genesis 29 tells the story of how Jacob loved his wife Rachel more than his wife Leah. (Many men in the Bible had multiple wives at once. However, that was not God’s intention for marriage and is an example of sin in the world.) Verse 31 says, “The LORD saw that Leah was not loved.” But God gave Leah child after child. And every time, Leah thought it would make Jacob love her. Her heart was hurting, and she wanted the love of her husband. But even though Leah bore children and Rachel didn’t, Jacob still loved Rachel more. Yet God saw Leah in her hurting. God sees and loves the unchosen. Finally, after giving birth to a fourth son, Leah said, “This time I will praise the LORD.” After failing to receive her husband’s love time and again, Leah chose to praise the Lord, even in her affliction.

God gave Leah four sons. There was nothing Leah could do to make Jacob love her, and yet there was nothing she could do to make God stop loving her. At first, Leah was so focused on the love she didn’t have from her husband that she couldn’t praise God for the love He was giving her. It’s almost like every time Leah had a child, God was saying, “Look at me! Look at all I’m giving you! I see you, and I love you. Don’t look to man for love, look to me.” Though Leah lacked love from Jacob, God led her into His love. In her affliction, He led her to praise. And Leah’s praise showed faith in God’s promise. Little did she know that her fourth son, Judah, would be a direct ancestor of Jesus, the Promised One.

God was with Leah and cared for her in her hurting, and He is with you too. God’s greatest gift and greatest demonstration of love was in sending His Son Jesus to earth to die for our sins and be resurrected. Because of Jesus, we can be in close relationship with God and one day spend eternal life with Him, free from the fear of rejection. • Elizabeth Cooper

• God’s love is greater than any other love we can experience (Ephesians 3:14-21). And He longs to comfort us as we tell Him about the ways we’ve felt rejected or unwanted. He reveals His love for us through His Word, and also through His work in our lives. One of God’s gifts to us is community. Who are people in your life, such as friends or family, who have shown you love?

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. c (NIV)