Everybody loves a love story.  And one of the most tender love stories in the Bible is about Rebecca and Isaac.  When Isaac was of age to marry, Abraham didn't want him to marry just anybody.  He wanted Isaac to have the perfect woman, and was willing to do whatever he needed to do to make that happen.  It was usual back then for a father to arrange a marriage for his son.

Every time I read this story, I think about Ken--after a year at war in Korea, and two years teaching cadets to land on carriers--going on leave, back to Pryor, to the place he grew up.  I don't know that he was looking for a wife, but needed a rest from the previous four year--and there is something comforting about the people in your home town.  They were people he knew and trusted.  And even though he didn't know me, he knew my mother and father very well.  I think that is what Abraham felt.  He knew those people back in the land that he had left.  He knew their values and their history.  That was what he wanted for his son Isaac.  What you know is better than what you don't.

So Abraham sent a servant that he trusted to find a wife for Isaac.  He gave him very explicit instructions, "...go to my country, and to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac...The Lord shall send his angel before you..."  And I'm sure he added, "Not just any woman..."

When the servant arrived, he stopped at a well and prayed to God and said, "Behold I stand here by the well...and the daughters...will come out to draw water...Let the one that says, drink, and I will give your camels drink also...the same be she that you have appointed for your servant Isaac...and I shall know that you have showed kindness to my master."  And when the daughters came to the well, one of them said exactly that.  But further, she went to the well and drew water for the camels herself, going back and forth until the camels had been cared for.  She went above and beyond for a stranger.

He asked her who she was, and she said Milcah was her grandmother, and Nahor--Abraham's brother was her grandfather.  At that point, the servant bowed and blessed God that he had found this woman.  He went to her father's house and told the story of who he was and why he was there.  I can't imagine how brave she was.  She agreed to go to a strange land and marry a man she had never met.