So, my home holds six adults, one dog, and one leopard gecko. Where I sit right now, I can take in the contents of the kitchen, dining room, living room and the stairs down to the basement. I see all our stuff stuck in place, on tables, counters, etc. I come here and some mornings, I want to just throw it all out, haha. i don’t, here’s what I understand, a day will come, all too soon, when they will all be in their own homes. (Not the dog, but the leopard gecko needs to go with one of them.) So, when I sit here to do my quiet time, my eyes rest of the windows in front of me. I set my gaze and settle my mind on time with the Lord and the beauty of the morning.
Yesterday i began my tracing of peace with three passages that reminded me. Peace is wholeness, peace is well-being, peace is safety. In a way, it is like my first paragraph today. yes, there is chaos, but I am choosing to set my gaze on the beauty. Look forward. Realize the beauty is here even when all feels a off kilter.
So, I continue my tracing of peace and we find ourselves in Joseph’s story. He is now second in command in Egypt and the brothers are known. Yet, the brothers do not know him, yet. He has continued his secret. He sent sacks of grain home to his father, but he also had his servant hide his cup in one of the sacks. The youngest. Benjamin. Now the brothers have discovered the errant cup and raced back to Joseph’s presence.
“What can we say to my lord?” Judah replied, “How can we plead? How can we justify ourselves? God has exposed your servants’ iniquity. We are now my lord’s slaves—both we and the one in whose possession the cup was found.” Then Joseph said, “I swear that I will not do this. The man in whose possession the cup was found will be my slave. The rest of you can go in peace to your father.”
Genesis 44:16-17
Little did Judah know as he was pleading his brother’s case before Joseph he was in the process of helping to heal Joseph’s heart towards them. Peace could not be found for Judah, for he knew that he could not return home without Benjamin. He cared more for others in this than for his own life and family. Peace is found not in serving self, but an outward focus that does not rest in the face of despair.
Joseph began to see that they were not the same men who threw him into an empty cistern and sold him into slavery. Their first concern was not their comfort (whether emotional or physical). Joseph began to reassure, he wouldn’t keep them all in slavery. Though, in his humanity, I wonder if he WANTED to do this very thing. Could we blame him? I think it was at least 13 years that he was either enslaved or in prison.
He tells them, you can all go back. Just leave the boy. And then, this is beautiful. He wishes his brothers peace. Safety. Wellness. None of these things were given to him as he was pitched into that hole and left to die. Take some time to read Joseph’s story today.
I have much to learn from Joseph about suffering well. Continuing to turn my face to God no matter where this day finds me. No matter what is happening in my body, my life, my family, may I keep on setting my face to him who has already delivered me.
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