The Pages We Haven’t Seen
Sometimes we think we know how the story ends.
Joseph’s brothers certainly thought they knew what had become of the brother they sold into slavery. Jacob had spent more than twenty years believing Joseph was dead. Yet while Jacob grieved, pages of Joseph’s story were being written that Jacob could not see.
When Joseph finally reveals himself to his brothers, he doesn’t pretend the painful parts never happened. He tells them plainly, “I’m your brother, Joseph, the one you sold to Egypt.” But Joseph can now see something he could never have seen from the bottom of the pit: his brothers actions did not get to determine the meaning of the whole story.
As I put it in the sermon, while grace doesn’t rewrite the facts, it does rewrite what the facts mean.
That matters because some pages really are painful. Some things cannot be undone. Some relationships are not restored. Some people we love really do die. Genesis 45 doesn’t promise that if we trust God enough, everything will eventually turn out the way we wanted. It offers a different kind of hope.
Jacob had not been foolish to grieve. As far as he knew, he had plenty of reason to do so. He simply couldn’t see everything that was happening.
Sometimes what we call the end of the story is only the last page we have been able to see.
That is part of what we remember when we gather at the Lord’s Table. Betrayal, suffering, the cross, death, and the tomb were all real. But they did not get the final word.
Whatever page you find yourself on today, God’s grace is larger than the page you can see. There are pages we haven’t seen yet, and God is still at work.
We’d love to see you in person at Lincoln Park-Lynnwood United Methodist Church, 3120 Pershing Street, Knoxville, TN. Come as you are. We’re not in the judging business. We’re in the welcoming business.
