We don’t like to wait for a lengthy amount of time. Long lines, and long rides, can cause the best of us to become impatient. Just spend time with a toddler and you will quickly agree.
- “Why can’t these people move?”
- “How long do we need to stand here?”
- “Are we there yet?”
We have become a people accustomed to the instant. We want what we want and immediately.
But life does not unfold immediately. It unravels in minutes, days, weeks, months, and yes, even years.
As we read our Bibles, we overlook the fact that while we get to the end of a story or chapter quickly, it was not so in the life of the biblical characters.
“Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream …”
(Genesis 41:1, NASB)
By this point in his story, Joseph had experienced plenty of hardship. Sold into slavery by his brothers, through some twists and turns, he finds himself in a prison cell for doing the right thing.
In prison, he interprets the dreams of two men in exchange for them promising to remember and help him. However, the two men go on with their lives forgetting all about Joseph.
They forgot about him until Pharaoh has his dream. It is at this point that one man, Pharaoh’s cupbearer, remembers Joseph.
At the end of two full years.
We can so miss this important detail. Joseph waited for two years not knowing if he was ever going to be remembered or helped.
Life can often seem unfair. Circumstances can often be different than we had hoped. Time seems to stretch out before us. We can be assured God is with us and at work even in this very span of time.
May those words – “at the end of two full years” – breathe hope into your soul.
There is an end.
God, the Author of each of our stories, knows how
He will bring each circumstance to an end.
“Faith is not the clinging to a shrine, but an endless pilgrimage of the heart.”
(Abraham Joshua Heschel)
Reflection:
How does Joseph’s story, and wait, speak to your life where you are today?
"an endless pilgrimage of the heart" - such truth. As I get older, time seems to snowball down the hill faster and faster. The wait of a prayer sent out used to be soooooooo long, until I realized that the most important part of living our faith is in that wait - and I learned to breathe in the wait, to live in the wait instead of waiting to breathe, waiting to live. Yet, if I am not vigilant - I can find myself holding my breath, pausing, waiting instead of trusting to live.
ReplyDeleteI've often said that people were "nicer" before the advent of instant everything -- Amazon, streaming, the internet. I often laugh when someone passes me only to find them sitting next to me at the stop light. Really? You were in such a hurry to get to the light? The only thing I don't like waiting for is medical test results and too long for dinner!
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