I want to experience a Jacob Love
You know, for a long time I’ve always asked, what is love? And no better answer have I gotten than:
“So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her.” — Genesis 29:20
There is something almost unbelievable about this verse.
Seven years.
Not seven days.
Not seven months.
Seven years.
And somehow, to Jacob, they felt like only a few days.
Not because the years were short.
Because the love was worth the wait.
I think about that sometimes.
Because we live in a world where everything is becoming faster.
Fast replies.
Fast relationships.
Fast attachment.
Fast breakups.
We want to meet someone today and know tomorrow whether they are the one.
We want instant chemistry, instant certainty, instant everything.
Jacob’s story feels almost foreign.
He saw Rachel.
He loved her.
And then he waited.
Seven years.
And the Bible doesn’t describe those seven years as unbearable.
It says they seemed “like a few days.”
That is what love can do.
It doesn’t necessarily make the journey shorter.
It makes the journey worth taking.
Jacob wasn’t counting down seven years because he couldn’t wait to finally possess Rachel.
He was working toward a future he believed was worth the work.
And maybe that’s what I love most about the story.
Jacob didn’t just feel something for Rachel.
He served for it.
He worked.
He waited.
He endured.
His love had patience attached to it.
And I think there is something beautiful about that kind of love.
The kind that doesn’t disappear simply because the excitement wears off.
The kind that says:
I still choose you.
I still want this.
I’m still willing to put in the work.
Not because love should require suffering.
But because something valuable is worth caring for.
I don’t think Jacob’s love should be romanticised into some perfect love story.
Because it wasn’t perfect.
Jacob was deceived.
He ended up marrying Leah first.
There were complications.
There was rivalry.
There was pain.
The story gets messy very quickly.
But perhaps that’s another reason it feels human/relatable.
Love doesn’t always happen inside perfect circumstances.
Sometimes people love each other while life is still complicated.
And perhaps the greatest expression of love isn’t how intensely you feel something when everything is beautiful.
It’s what remains when reality arrives.
Genesis 29:20 has become one of those verses I don’t just read as a Bible story anymore.
I read it as a question.
What would I be willing to wait for?
What would I still choose if it took longer than I expected?
What would I still love when the novelty disappeared?
What would still be worth seven years of becoming, growing, waiting and working?
Because maybe real love isn’t measured only by how strongly your heart beats when someone walks into the room.
Maybe sometimes it is measured by how willingly you keep showing up after the butterflies have learned your name.
Jacob loved Rachel so much that seven years became a few days.
And perhaps that is one of the most beautiful descriptions of love in Scripture.
Not because seven years are actually short.
But because when you believe something is worth having, waiting doesn’t feel like wasted time.
It feels like part of the story.
Jacob waited seven years for Rachel.
And the years passed.
The work continued.
The promise remained.
And somehow, love made the waiting feel light.
Maybe that’s Jacob love.
Not love that says, “I can’t wait.”
But love that says,
“I’ll wait.”
