TODAY’S SPECIAL: Genesis 45:1-15
TO CHEW ON: “And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.” Genesis 45:5
After hearing Judah’s offer to take Benjamin’s place, Joseph knew his brothers were changed. Suddenly all the feelings he had been holding inside – the sadness at being hated and sold by his brothers, the fear, the homesickness, the years of being away from his family, the mixed-up feelings he got when he saw his brothers again – needed to come out.
Joseph dismissed his servants, and began to cry. “I am Joseph,” he told his brothers between sobs. “Is my father still living?”
His brothers were scared of him. Now Joseph was the powerful one. He could do anything he wanted with them. Would he want revenge?
But he told them, “Don’t worry. God was in everything that happened. You meant to do a bad thing to me, but God made something good out of it. Because I am here in Egypt, our whole family can be saved from the famine.”
We too may have experienced things we don’t understand. People may have hurt us, or left us or treated us badly. We may have gone through loneliness and confusion. We may have wondered, why is this happening? But like Joseph, we too can trust God to make good things out of bad in our lives.
PRAYER: Dear God, help me to trust you with every part of my life, like Joseph did. Amen.
MORE: Puzzling the puzzle
Some things that happen to us may feel like puzzle pieces that don’t fit.
1. What things have happened to you that you don’t understand?
2. What things have happened to you that you didn’t understand once, but now you’re beginning to see how they make sense?
3. What do you think—do we need to understand why things happen to us? Why or why not.