Welcome back to the Jesse Tree on the Catholic Sprouts podcast.

Today is Friday of the first week of Advent.

God used a family to save the world and restore all people to himself.

Abraham was the father of that family, and though he had only one son, just a few generations later, that family had grown tremendously.

Abraham's grandson, Jacob, had 12 sons, and those sons went on to have large families of their own.

But Jacob, like all of his ancestors, was not

perfect. God tested Jacob and prepared him for the role that he would play in salvation history.

Jacob's story gives us confidence that God is able to use us to, even in our brokenness.

Listen now to the story of God wrestling with Jacob, told in the book of Genesis.

Genesis chapter 32, 22 through 32.

The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his 11 children,

and crossed the ford of the Jabbek. He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise

everything that he had. Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob,

he struck him on the hip socket,

and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him.

Then he said,

Let me go, for the day is breaking.

But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me.

So he said to him, what is your name?

And he said, Jacob. Then the man said, you shall no longer be

called Jacob but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans and have prevailed. Then Jacob asked

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