I generally write for artists and creatives. This devotional, however, is for women. Women of adventure!

So they called Rebekah and asked her, “Will you go with this man?”
“I will go,” she said.
Then Rebekah and her attendants got ready and mounted the camels and went back with the man. So the servant took Rebekah and left. ~ Genesis 24

Oh Rebekah, Rebekah. I admire your bravery and sense of adventure. A proposal has come through a servant of a man from a distant, foreign land and without hesitation you say, “Yes!” You are a woman of adventure!

Let me give you a little background to the story. Abraham is growing very old and has commissioned his most faithful servant to find his son Isaac a wife from among his own people. This means a trip back to Abraham’s homeland. With his mission bathed in prayer, he leaves with camels, servants, provisions, and many gifts.

Our adventuring young woman first enters the scene in verse 15. Scripture indicates that she is a virgin and very beautiful—Abraham’s servant has hit the proverbial two birds with one stone! He returns with her to her home where he asks her family if she can return with him to be the wife of his master Isaac. The story the servant tells them convinces them that this is God’s will for the young woman, but her brother Laban and mother want to delay her “10 days or so.” If you remember our “friend” Laban: he enters the scene later in Genesis when he tricks Jacob into 14 years of service for his two daughters, Rachel and Leah. Laban is not an honest business man, so I have a hunch that the “or so” would have stretched out the delay for many more days. But Abraham’s servant is insistent that they must leave immediately. Rebekah is called and asked her opinion on the matter. Another hunch of mine is that Laban and his mother thought she’d be hesitant to leave and they would get the delay they wished for.

But our dear adventurer surprises them!

“I will go,” she said.

As simple as that! She is ready to go!

I love her spirit of adventure. I suspect she was bored where she was. She had looked at the marriage prospects around her and found none of them suitable, or exciting, perhaps. Then out of the blue, this servant shows up looking for a bride and it’s obvious his master is very wealthy. “Why not?” she thinks. “What have I got to lose?”

Her courage rises to the surface and our young adventurer rises to the occasion. And in the end her courage is rewarded. When I read of her meeting Isaac for the first time in verses 62-67, I can see it play out in my head like a scene from a romantic movie. He is praying. He looks up to see the caravan approaching and thinks, “Were they successful? Is my bride there with them?”

She also looks up. Looks up and gets down from her camel. “Who is that man?” she inquires. What she doesn’t say but is surely thinking: “Could this be him? Will my adventure be worth the risk? Will I grow to love him? Will he love me?”

The servant replies, “He is my master.” What he doesn’t say but is thinking: “Well, this is it! Will he approve? Surely she is very beautiful and he will be pleased, won’t he? I’ve taken this young girl from the only family she has ever known. She is either courageous or crazy.”

My daughter is getting ready to travel cross-country to Montana for college. We have a three-day road trip planned with some sight-seeing on the way: the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, the place of Custer’s Last Stand, and the world’s largest six-pack. Yes, you heard me right, Look it up. It’s in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

She is an adventurous young woman. I admire her courage. Her willingness to leave everything she knows to go to a “foreign land” to study engineering. Oh, and “maybe photography,” she tells us. Perhaps like Rebekah, she’s also a little crazy. That’s her pictured above, sitting on a bridge in the middle of Big Sky country. She looks so small.

I wonder what she’s thinking? I know she is excited and a little nervous. But does she realize the adventure she’s taking? New friends—friends from places she’s never been who will be very different from her. New experiences—Gold Rush football games, college classes, all-nighters and exams. New mountains to ski. New trails to hike. New photos to take.

I wonder if at some point she will look up and see someone or something ahead and ask Rebekah’s questions, “Who or what is that?” and somewhere deep in her spirit, His Spirit will speak, “That is your Master. He loves you. He called you on this adventure, and he has a great plan and purpose in it. This is a fulfillment of promises spoken but perhaps not heard. He has been calling you on this adventure since you were born. Before you ever heard of Montana, He was calling you here to fulfill your dreams and purposes.”

Her adventure has begun! It began the moment she said, “I will go.”

When was the last time you agreed to an adventure? The last time you said, “Yes, I will go” and then actually followed through? God calls every one of us on an adventure, but I often look around and wonder how many actually agree or follow. We have our doubts, our fears, our caution. Yet, for every adventurous journey he calls us on, He makes this promise: “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9) Over and over His Word promises us that He will be with us. Do we have the courage to say, “I will go”? To be a woman of adventure?

Won’t you say “Yes”?

(C) 2014 Jody Thomae
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Jody Thomae is the author of God’s Creative Gift–Unleashing the Artist in You and The Creator’s Healing Power–Restoring the Broken to Beautiful, both part of the Bible Studies to Nurture the Creative Spirit Within series. For more Bible studies like the one above, you can purchase her books at: Amazon, Jody’s Square Store and through other book retailers. They are also available in Kindle.