Read: Genesis 33
We all use Facebook for a number of reasons and on numerous occasions. For some
it is not only a platform to connect, but also to let others know what is
happening in their lives. The good news, news that troubles or just passive
comments. But for a seven year boy in Iowa, Facebook became a platform
and tool to bring together a brother and sister who after a span of 65 years.
This remarkable story is about Betty Billadeau and her brother Clifford
Bosyson. Both Betty and Boyson were separated when Betty was five and Boyson
was three, as they were sent to separate foster homes after they lost their
parents. After the siblings grew up, the continued searching for each other,
but without any hopes. Boyson would always try to do something or the other so
as to know the whereabouts of his sister but everything was in vain till he met
seven year old Eddie Hanzelin, who happened to be his landlord's son. Boyson
shared his tragic story of his separation from his sibling to Eddie who though
only seven years of age decided to do some online sleuthing. His mother had a
Facebook account and through that account, he began his work of searching for
the lost sibling. According to Eddie, he went on Facebook and typed the name
Boyson and soon a whole bunch of pictures showed up. Matching up with faces that
are similar to Clifford, Eddie zeroed on number of pictures and finally he
found one that matched up Clifford. He later showed it to his father and
mother. His dad Glenn Hanzelin contacted Betty over Facebook and soon a reunion
was arranged. Last Saturday, the two sibling saw each other after 65 years,
hugging each other, shedding tears of joy and reunion. Betty is a
grandmother now and she had come with her daughter and her granddaughter for
the reunion. As Eddie saw siblings being united he felt happy and
exclaimed "Family is what matters and important". A young boy
who felt that relationships need to be strengthened and reconciled, a young boy
who feels that family relationship should never be taken for granted. In world
of today, though we have different avenues of connecting and enhancing of our
relationship, we live in a world where relationships lack quality, intimacy and
integrity. Very few people invest time and energy to build up relationships
that God gives to us and for many life is all about fulfilling their career
goals, to get little more financially stable and for others struggle to move up
in life. It does not matter to many whether they have any qualitative
relationships in life, till they learn a bitter lesson later in life.
When we examine the Word of God we find host of examples where people have
forgotten the importance of relationship and were running after material and
worldly benefits. In the book of Genesis, we read the remarkable story of two
brothers Esau and Jacob. In chapter 33, we find the poignant story of the
reunion of these brothers. Reunited not by anyone else, but reunited through
the bitter lesson that they learn in life and in history. A bitter truth that
both the brothers learnt, truth that one can't live by going on cheating and
one day you history will catch up with you. For Jacob, life was all about
moving forward in leaps and bounds, life was moving in the fast lane. It did
not matter what means one had to use, the ends was very important. It is this
quest to move in life's fast lane that makes him a cheater. He has no issues
playing with the emotions of his father, when he cheated him by acting like
Esau, he had no guilty feeling when he usurped the birth right of his brother.
For him life was all about achievements and accomplishments. Web of
relationship in terms of what it means to be a brother, or a son did not matter
or was of least concern. Relationships mattered only if those relationship
enhanced his life in terms of material prosperity. It is this quest to have
more and more in life that lead him to Laban and finally through the different
experiences that he gets in Laban household, experiences where he is also
cheated by Laban into marrying both Rachel and Leah opens his eyes. Finally, he
realized that life is not worth living with all riches and other worldly things
without having a reconciled relationship with ones siblings and family. In
Genesis 33, we find the incident of reconciliation of these two brothers.
However, in the reconciliation incident we also find Jacob witnessing the
lesson that he learnt in life. He is tired of running in the fast lane of life,
where his goal in life was all about accomplishment, but now the truth
dawns on him that what matters in life is not riches but happiness and meaning
that one can find in building up of genuine relationships, where there is
forgiveness, where there is reconciliation, where there is joy and happiness in
each other's presence and fellowship. In v: 10, Jacob tells Esau that in seeing
his brother's face, he is seeing the face of God. All these years Jacob live
away from seeing the face of God and now he realized that in seeing the face of
his brother he is seeing the face of God. The reconciliation of Jacob and Esau
and also the reconciliation of the siblings in Iowa teaches us something
valuable about the place and value of relationships in life. Let us therefore
take a decision today to reorient our life in such a way that emphasis on life
is to see the face of God daily, to see the face of God in our relationship
that God has given to us in our life and to constantly take time and effort to
build up our relationship and not living a life where the focus of life is only
seen as accomplishments or acquisition of more and more worldly things.