Reunited

Genesis 46

I can’t imagine what it must be like for families who are reunited after, say, a child has been abducted and comes home again after a few years; or when someone is away on purpose for a time, as with someone serving in Afghanistan. For a lot of people around here a loved one was away on the Great Lakes much of the year. Then there are people from families into which they were adopted who catch up with siblings and other relatives after most of their life, and take great delight in learning about their ‘new’ family. I have not had direct experience of any of that. Even observing it from close range can’t possibly let you truly know the depth of that experience and all the emotions along with it.

So it is totally unimaginable to me to know what was going through the hearts and heads of Joseph and Jacob as they embraced. Joseph was assumed to be dead. Now he was not only alive but was found to have become a larger than life kind of figure. But now it was just a son and father embracing and bringing their lives together again. Maybe this moment was even more intense for Joseph than for the father, knowing all along the true situation. It’s interesting that the one before whom others had appeared now is described as appearing before his father, falling on his neck and crying a long time.

Prayer:
Lord, thank you for those around us whom we utterly can trust. Provide such relationships to those who don’t have this. Transform homes where there is bitterness and distrust. Transform those who make trust in them difficult. Help us learn from and grow to be more like your Son, who traveled far from you, his Dad, for our sake. Amen.