Genesis 32

Today I read Genesis 32.  This chapter has two parts -- Jacob planning to meet with Esau and Jacob wrestling throughout the night.  My thoughts:

• Jacob plans to send wave after wave of gifts to his brother in order to appease him.  Do we do that?  Do we find it to be successful?  Should it be?
• The comments on the passage say that Jacob couldn't imagine any ending to the encounter other than a violent one.  Are we sometimes like that -- so worried and fearful that we cannot imagine any ending to an experience other than the worst possible ending?  Does that worry and fear sometimes block us from imaging that God could be involved and have other plans?
• This might have been one of the first times I thought Jacob was giving credit to God for his success.  He is almost too desperate to plot something!
• Later that night, Jacob sends his wives and children across the Jabbock but stays alone on the one side.  He wrestles with what is at first called a man, but later described as God.  God struggles with Jacob all night long, and in the end, there really is no winner.  What does this tell us about ourselves?  About God?  About our relationship with God?  I like this passage, because God does not give up -- he stays and struggles with Jacob, all night long.
• In the morning, God changes Jacob's name to Israel -- "God strives."  Does that denote a change in the man himself?  Is that what the struggle was about?