Bad things happen to even the best of us. Yaakov certainly did not have an easy life. We think that just because he is one of our avot that he must have had it made, at least I thought that. Quite on the contrary though, Yaakov had his fair share of hardships. While he was a young man he had to trick his brother then his father. Then as a result of that he had to flee from his home so that his older brother wouldn't kill him. Then he had to work for Lavan for 7 years just to marry the love of his life. Of course when it came time for that, Lavan gave him the wrong daughter "by accident" making him have to work another 7 years for the right daughter. After that Lavan wouldn't let him return back to his home, so he had to escape in the middle of the night. Rachel stole her father's idols so he came after them. Yaakov had to confront him and send him back his way. When Yaakov finally returned him he was met by an angel and then sent gift after gift to appease his brother before meeting him. Then he meets with his brother and everything seems fine. Yaakov finds out after that that his father died. His wife Rachel also dies. Reuven, Yaakov's oldest son decides he has to put his mother on top and sleeps with Yaakov's concubine.
I don't know why many people just assume everything is handed to our avot. Maybe its because Hashem was so close to them and was with them every step of the way. I certainly thought that automatically our avot had the life. That they never had any heartaches or difficulties. In fact its the complete opposite. They might have had to deal with worse and more difficulties in their lifetimes. Our avot are even more similar to us than I had ever realized.
I think we can all take a lesson from Yaakov and the rest of our avot. Life gets tough sometimes, but then it gets better. Hashem is always with us no matter what, just like how He was with Yaakov and all our other avot and imahot.
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