I have hidden Thy word in my heart.
(Picture by Lisa R)

Genesis 43-45. (I know it’s usually just one chapter, but you try reading just one chapter in this portion of the story. Every ending was a cliff hanger I had to take it to the end 😉 ). “Then Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come close to me.’ When they had done so, he said, ‘I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! 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. For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt” (Ch. 45: 4 – 8). Remember the dream? Remember the family’s reaction? What did God do? Everything He said. Joseph’s brothers did bow down. But that not the important message here. Do you see it? It was NOT you, BUT GOD that sent me here. Joseph understood. he didn’t lay blame. He didn’t hold a grudge. He knew that he needed to walk this road in order to get where God wanted him to go. I don’t always understand what God is doing. Some days He leads me down a a certain path and my first instinct is, “There wasn’t an easier way Lord?” But then I remember the journey is NOT about the destination as much as it is about the lessons and the preparation that we get along the way. All that Joseph went through prepared him to be the kind of leader that God wanted him to be.