more favoured by God?

Researchers found that almost all parents have favourites. When asked, they generally said this wasn’t so but when asked who the favourite was, neighbours and other family members consistently named one child. Perhaps this is at the core of all sibling rivalry. We would all like our parents’ attention and recognise the unfairness of one being more favoured.

We had an uncle who greeted us with, “How is my favourite niece today?” We knew he said it to each one of his nieces. That didn’t matter. It always brought a smile to our face. God who loves each one of us as if there were only one to love will help us. The Fruit of the Spirit within us, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control will assist us to not play favourites. Then the seeds of our relationships will flourish, and bear fruit, and the harvest of love and joy will be great.

The story of Esau and Jacob, more than just the part about who was favourite, is troubling in these days when we are encouraged to also look at Biblical stories from the point of view of the underling. Jacob is obviously the one who is more favoured by God, but many may identify more with Esau. Like him, Joan was less attractive than her sister who was frequently described as “a pretty little girl” while Joan was the “tomboy”. Like the descriptions of Esau and Jacob, these assessments were too simplistic. Nothing is ever that black and white.

Rev Julianne Parker (full sermon on sermon page.