Q: How can we express our God-given dominion and joy when we are going through a phase of feeling deeply betrayed or rejected by someone we love?
A: I love the fact that the way this question has been framed suggests the key to its answer: “our God-given dominion and joy.” Betrayal or rejection by someone we love is a difficulty we may all face, at least in some modest way, but it offers the opportunity to embrace that person and even ourselves in a more spiritual light that leads to healing.
In the Bible, Jacob and Esau faced such a situation in their relationship. After years of estrangement, Jacob was divinely impelled to reconnect with his brother. Before meeting each other again, Jacob prayed all night, and that prayer revealed his true, divine character in such a way that his human nature was transformed. The next day, when he ran to meet his brother, he said to him, “I have seen thy face, as though I had seen the face of God, and thou wast pleased with me” (Genesis 33:10).
