A Tender Moment in Time

 “Please come near to me…I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life…So now it was not you who sent me here, but God;” Genesis 45:4-8

We have arrived at one of the most tender moments in Scripture…a foretaste of what Christ did for us on the cross and it makes me cry. More than anything, Joseph wanted to be reunited in the family. More than anything, he longed for the love and fellowship he had missed for 22 years. The terror his brothers must have felt when they discovered the person in charge of their lives was the very one whose life they previously altered. But the most endearing attitude in this passage is something I desperately want to embrace in my own life. Like Joseph, I want the ability to see my most heartbreaking circumstances through the perspective of God’s eyes, not the eyes of my flesh. I want to remember when others wrong me that because I have been forgiven, I am to forgive. I want to look at those who have hurt me and tenderly whisper, please come near to me. I want to give grace to those who don’t deserve it, and I want to receive grace when I have failed. 

Having God’s perspective in whatever we are facing will bring us freedom in our circumstances. Like Joseph, when we can trace God’s steps through our challenging times, we come out the other side not blaming others but praising God. No path we walk on hasn’t first been cleared by God’s detailed providence of transforming power. The path that ends in spiritual freedom has been personally tended to and prepared by God. 

I’m sure that like Joseph, we may be walking the path in between promise and fulfillment…sadness and joy…fear and peace. It is easy to despair when dreams seem to have lost their pulse…hopes seem to barely deliver…fear and discouragement seem to take center stage in our story that is unfolding. But like Joseph, there is someone else who leans in to you and to me and whispers ‘Please come near.’ His name is God and He beckons us to ‘…draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith,’ and to ‘hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.’ Hebrews 10:22-24.

And when we draw near to Him we see every detail of our lives, the good, the bad, and the ugly as the transforming work of a Savior who relentlessly loves and faithfully saves.