A Reunion

Imagine that your children are away from you doing something. When they return, there is a child missing, and all that remains of your child is his/her torn clothing. You are told that your child is dead. How tormenting that would be...how gut-wrenching! Imagine that years go by and that you ache to hold your child again...to see your child's face again. Imagine what it could be like to find out many, many years later that your child is very much alive, and imagine what the embrace would be like when you see that child's face again! Jacob experienced this.

I have been reading this week about the story of Joseph. Of course, I have grown up hearing about how Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery and told their father that he was dead. I remember hearing about what amazing things God did in Joseph's life despite the betrayal of his brothers. I don't think I had ever thought about it from a parent's perspective, and as I read about Jacob and Joseph seeing each other for the first time, I was so blown away. I cannot imagine the emotion that must have surrounded that event. It is something that I would love to have witnessed.

The belief was that Joseph was dead. The truth was that Joseph was alive. Sometimes, our belief is that something within us has died...maybe a dream, maybe the ability to open up and love...it could be anything. The truth is that our God, Who raised Lazarus from the dead, can bring to life whatever seems to us to be dead. In all reality, it is living beneath the surface. He is fashioning it, pruning it, doing amazing things with it...all while we don't even believe in the possibility of the existence of life anymore. God did such extraordinary things through the life of a son that Jacob thought did not even walk the face of the earth anymore. And though all we may see is death, God is breathing life. I pray that God makes us aware of the reality that there is truly life where we have believed there is death. And when we reunite with the truth of life, may it be life-changing.