Lea: One Woman's Story

I was with the mamas on Saturday. I actually went rather reluctantly that morning. But as we sat on our mat drinking chai after making our balms and goat's milk soap, we talked and I was so thankful I had gone...

Bead making on the mat

We talked about Lea. Lea, a woman in a very unhappy marriage. In a situation like many of the mamas in our group, her husband has taken another woman (some husbands have taken several women) as a wife. The mamas in our group know very well that the tension as the two wives live together is hard to bear. The competition for children is fierce and unfair. For one mama in our group, she watches her children (with albinism) get nothing while the children of the other wife receive school supplies and medicine when needed. For one mama in our group, her husband left her a few weeks ago to go to another woman who lives far away, leaving her with five children and no provision. She is physically sick with worry. For another mama in our group, the husband has been drinking and recently she has faced drunken beatings. But back to Lea...  like the two mamas with albinism in our group, Lea has weak eyes. She is not what the world defines as "beautiful." I think she feels like many of the mamas in our group feel or have felt before.

On Saturday morning, we read Lea's story together and what encouragement it brought! Lea, the unloved wife with weak eyes, became pregnant. Like the mamas in our group, "Mother's Love", she fiercely understood what a blessing her child was. And with the birth of her baby, she knew that God had seen her. He had seen her pain and misery and given her this child. She named him Reubeni. God sees. Life did not get easier for Lea. Still her husband did not love her. In her misery, it must have felt she had no one to listen to her. Yet she gave birth to a second son. And we see her hope, her perspective. She named him Simeoni. God hears. Desperate to feel close to her husband, for him to love her, she called her next son Lawi which means attached. But still, despite giving him three sons, there is no love shown to her from her husband, Yakobo. But still she chooses to praise the One who sees and who hears. She named her next son, Yuda "praise." As we read her story, we see she faces endless struggles with Yakobo's beloved and preferred wife, Raheli who is unable to have children and is jealous of Lea's.

And then we read of this son, Yuda, later given the blessing of being the Lion of Judah, a sign of who is to come! And then we read in Matthew's gospel, that Judah, the son of Lea, carried the family line of Jesus. Jesus, who sees our pain, hears our cry, who attaches Himself to us, who deserves our praise. Jesus, the Lion of Judah who came to save us.

As for many of us, Lea could not see well. Life was so incredibly painful for her. She had no idea of the rich plan God had, and just how very important her seemingly small and insignificant life was. Yet she knew that God saw her pain. He listened to her cry. And gratefully receiving the blessing of her children, she chose to praise.

So sitting on the mat in our workship, after sharing Lea's story, we were left in awe of a God that cared so much for one so unloved; a God who chose a woman for a purpose greater than she could ever have imagined. Wow!

Read Lea’s story in Genesis 29