"And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head.
And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head.
And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations."
Genesis 48:18-19
This struck me as interesting today, since the two people in this story are Jacob, the younger son after Esau, and Joseph, the second youngest of all his father's children (although the oldest of the favorite wife). I'm guessing that Joseph was displeased because he knew his father was blind and thought he was just making a mistake, but when he realized that God was in the choosing, he became okay with it.
That makes me wonder if we would be okay with a lot more of our lives, as long as we knew that God's hand was in it. I can think of a couple of disasters in my life, that looking back certainly needed to happen to get me turned around and faced the right direction.
Events sometimes seem like the end of the world... loss of a job, a car, a house, a loved one, our internet connection, our company data, our health in some way, etc. And even though I jest a little bit about modern internet addiction, depending on the circumstances, all of these could be really hard, devastating things that harm us or our livelihoods in some way. But if we knew that God was planning our lives perfectly, or that he needed that person on the other side, perhaps we could have more peace and confidence in the future. ... And really, it isn't just pretending. God tells us that "all things work together for good to them that love God," which is exactly what we are talking about, right? All things includes things that seem bad or tragic... everything works towards God's plan and his certain triumph over all the forces of evil.
Today, whatever comes, let's try accepting it as the will of the Lord, and praying to him about it rather than freaking out. As we talk to him, we'll learn to trust him more and know where and when to act... to try to correct or change course, to know when to hold on tightly, and when to let go.
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