Oh, the many thoughts swirling around in my head today!  From my reading in Genesis about the life of Joseph, to my son, Daniel, coming back from Alaska after being away five months, as well as the birthday celebration of our twins turning twenty-seven (is it really true?) on Saturday, to my love reading me the plays he began years ago, and oh my, how can I not ponder the beauty and majesty of God expressed through His creation.

For several days this past week, I woke up before the sun. What a delight to sit outside, coffee in my hands (it’s a very large mug) while trucks and vehicles sped along the highway, the stars and the moon shining so brightly over my head, and then, before my very eyes, as gently as a mother picks up her sleeping baby, the sun rose and a new day began.  It was beyond what my emotions could take in.  I cried.  Sheer joy.  I felt included and so very loved.

Today, two ducks flew overhead and though I sat for a while, waiting to see the sun’s arrival, the chickens were squawking loudly to be released!  I missed her entrance over the trees because I had come inside.  But, I peered out an upstairs window, and there she was, in all her glory.

Each day has been quite profound and I pray I’ll never take any of it for granted.  It’s worth it to sit long enough to really comprehend the stuff of life, including sunrises as well as the things happening and the things we read.

So, today, as I type these thoughts, I am overwhelmed by the truth that both pain and beauty can sit together.

Joseph’s life story is one such reality.  This young seventeen year old boy has two dreams and he shares them, I’m sure with great enthusiasm, with those who mean the most to him: his dad and his brothers.  But sadly, their response is anything but encouraging. It’ll be twenty years before those dreams play out and in that time Joseph has to go so many things: years of  hardships, accusation, abandonment, an unjust jail sentence, and yet God walks with him through it all.

Sidenote:  I just read what I’ve written so far to my father-in-law, which sparked a great conversation.  He reminded me that once Joseph was given Pharoah’s ‘second in command’ position, he could have very easily gone back and gotten vengeance for what his brother’s had done, what the cup-bearer failed to do by forgetting to mention him to the king years before.  But he didn’t.  He forgave.  He goes so far as to even naming his two son’s a reflection of his life: His first-born, Manasseh, which means ‘God has caused me to forget the pain of my past’ and then Ephraim, which means ‘God has prospered me in the land’.  This man had gone through hell and yet he knew the character of God.

Joseph was loyal, moral, faithful, patient, gracious, forgiving, and he never quit or gave up and in the end, God elevated him to a place of prominence. God had a world to save and He needed to make this teenage boy into a man that could handle the job.

Am I one who has the same determination to honor God?  Are you, the reader?

To see beauty, sometimes we must endure for a ‘night’.  But joy comes in the morning.

Whether you are walking in the dark hours of the night or you’re sitting watching the sunrise, please know you are the Object of God’s love and despite how difficult the season is that you are in, it is a season and Our God sees.  He sees YOU.  He loves YOU and He is for YOU and He’s with you through it all.

He has a position He needs you to walk in and only He knows what it will take to prepare you for it.  There’s too much at stake.  For Joseph, it was leading the entire earth through a famine.

Perhaps you are investing in the next generation or demonstrating what faithfulness looks like in real time.  Never give up.

Until next time.