Reflections on Joseph

My daily reading lately has been at the end of Genesis. Today I read the part where Joseph is reunited with his brothers. The brothers who threw him into a pit and sold him in to slavery. Which resulted in him being in a foreign land and not seeing his family for decades. Which put him in a place where he was in prison for years. Joseph went through a lot of crap in his life because of what his brothers did to him. And even because he stood up for what is right in running from Potiphar's wife.

And yet, Joseph is able to say to them: "God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors. So it was God who sent me here, not you! And He is the one who made me an adviser to Pharaoh—the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all Egypt (Genesis 45:7-8 NLT)." Basically, Joseph realizes that he had to go through all that in order for God to be able to create His own nation which was promised to Abraham.

I think most Christians like to believe Romans 8:28 (And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose - NIV). But Joseph actually lived that out. He harbored no resentment or anger toward his brothers at all, but instead offered them a future. I am well aware that sometimes we bring the difficult times on ourselves as a consequence to our actions, and sometimes they just happen to us as Joseph experienced. But I believe in either experience that God does use it to bring about something better in our lives--if we let that happen.

I guess sometimes we just need the right perspective and belief that the difficult parts of life become something better down the road. And sometimes through that we've got to let ourselves be open to growing, learning and changing. Sometimes we have to learn to stand steadfast. But it all starts with being aware and open to God being in control.