Father spoke. “Please tell us your errand.”

“I am Eliezer, steward of the household of Abraham, husband of Sarah, and son of Terah, your grandfather.”

When Father read the words and nodded, he went on.

“The Lord has blessed my master with flocks and herds, silver and gold, menservants and maidservants, camels and donkeys. But this was nothing to him compared to the greatest gift of God: His wife, Sarah, gave birth in her old age to a boychild named Isaac.”

Isaac. Rebekah well knew the name and the story of the birth. But today Eliezer was telling this story because it was part of his errand. It was, she felt sure, the name of her husband. The miracle baby, grown to be a man, and now in need of a wife to bear children, so Abraham’s line could continue and the birthright could pass to another generation. A woman who will partake of the blessings of Sarah, to be the mother of nations in some future time.

Me.

“Abraham has begotten other sons to concubines, but Isaac is sole heir to all that Abraham has, including the birthright.”

When Father read this, he nodded. “We know of the birthright. For a while I was in line for it myself, till God chose otherwise.”

“A short while ago, my master called me to him and made me swear the most holy oath, that I would find a wife for Isaac, but not from among the daughters of the Canaanites in whose land Abraham dwells. Rather he sent me north to the land of Haran, to Abraham’s father’s house, to his kindred, to find a wife for his son.”

Rebekah saw how intently Father and Mother and Laban all listened to the man. She realized that she was the calmest person in the tent. But then, it was her prayer that was being answered here.

“But how would I, no more than a steward, and a man of Damascus by birth, hope to choose the woman who should be Isaac’s bride? The choice could not be mine. It had to be the Lord’s. So this evening, as I stood by the well of Haran, knowing that the women of this place would come there for water, I prayed that God would show me the woman he chose. I asked for this sign, that when I asked a woman for a drink of water, she would not only give it to me, but would also offer water for my animals.”

Mother raised an eyebrow at this. Rebekah suspected what she was thinking: Eliezer had not chosen an easy sign for God to fulfill. The kind of woman who would, of herself, talk freely to a stranger at the well, and pour water for him, was not the kind of woman that he could bring home as bride for his master’s son. So he made the sign even more outrageous—that she must offer to water his animals as well, even though he had servants with him who were perfectly capable of doing it. What woman, of low or high station, would go so far?