Proverbs Ideal Mother 2 Series

Harry Houdini as a young 20 year old performer, still years away from fame, met an 18 year

old singer named Wilhalmina Rohnes. She sat in the front row of his performance and he

spilled a glass of colored liquid that spotted her dress. To make amends he got her to give

him her measurements. He then talked his mother into making her a new dress. He

personally delivered the dress to her home. He invited her to go with him to Coney Island

and there he proposed to her, and before the day was over they were married.

This is what you call love at first sight, and a whirlwind courtship. It is an extremely high

risk method of getting married, but the fact is it sometimes works wonderfully. It did for

Houdini. They were inseparable for life, and he wrote her a love note everyday for 30 years

whether he was home or traveling. The fact that he was a Jew is a key factor in why it was

such a happy marriage. The Jews have always been a people seriously committed to being

great lovers. Houdini's father was a Rabbi, and his mother was 25 years younger than his

father. The age factor, class factor, and economic factor all of which makes so great a

difference in the lives of Gentiles did not make any difference to Jews. They meant it when

they married for better or for worse, and they went on loving through all the hardships of

life.

A little girl by the name of Lucy came home from school all excited to tell her mother the

new story her teacher told. She said, "Snow White lived in the forest with 7 little men and

one day she ate a poison apple and fell asleep. Then a prince came and kissed her and she

woke up." And then she asked her mother, "Guess what happened?" The mother

responded, "They lived happily ever after." "No no," Lucy protested, "They got married."

There is a difference between getting married and living happily ever after. Marriage often

leads to motherhood, and these two roles add a great deal of tension and responsibility to

life. The Jews learned from the Bible that love does not guarantee that life will be smooth

and happy, but persistent love is the only way to victory over all the obstacles that will block

the way to God's best.

Look at the great couples of the Bible, and you will not find life as a bed of roses without

thorns. Adam and Eve fell in love at first sight, and they were married the day they met. It

was the world's first romance, but in no time there was sorrow and tension. They disobeyed

God and had to endure the loss of perfect fellowship and the ideal environment of Eden.

Then they became parents, and who knows what they did for diaper service? They had their

problems as they had one child after another. The kids grew up fighting, and one of them

even killed another. The first family had enormous tensions but Adam and Eve went on

loving through it all. They did not have a lot of choices, of course. Had they gotten a

divorce there was none other to turn to. But there is no hint they ever desired separation.

After Cain killed Abel they had Seth and many other children. They loved each other and

were committed to each other in spite of all the trials.

This pattern carried on, and we see this as the primary characteristic of the Patriarchs

and their mates. Job and his wife went through physical and mental hell, but they went

through it together, and in the end they are one and in love. Abraham and Sarah had

enormous trials and tensions, but they faced them together, and through laughter and tears

they endured. The burden of barrenness, the fear of lust, the agony of deception and

separation, and of jealousy, and family conflict, and even war and captivity could not pry

them loose from their commitment of love.

Their children and grandchildren maintained this heritage. Isaac and Rebekah also fell in

love at first sight and were married the day they met. They had twins, and this was double

trouble, for each parent preferred a different son. Isaac loved Esau and Rebekah loved

Jacob. This led to tension, and later to the deception of Isaac by Rebekah. The things we

read in the Bible almost always lead to divorce in our day, but they work their way through

their problems and remained committed in love. Their son Jacob fell in love with Rachel at

first sight. He had to wait 7 years before he married her, but Scripture says it seemed like

only a few days to him because of his great love for her. They had the problem of Rachel