Why? Oh Why?

God speaks to me in themes.

That is a nice way of saying that I am so thick headed, when God wants me to learn something He puts it in front of me in every sermon, teaching, conversation, devotion and sometimes in a random lyric from a song or some odd billboard message.

Finally, I get it.

The current message seems to be, basically: 

I care about every detail of your life and all the stuff you go through, all the mistakes that seem to have been made, all the missed opportunities and interference from others and everything else that seems like a set back. I redeem everything. I use everything. Nothing is wasted if you continue to walk faithfully with Me, even when you don’t understand.

This message has been popping up in various forms the last few weeks, but really hit the AH-HA! I GET IT! button last night as I read Genesis 40 and 41 about Joseph and his many trials as he waited patiently in prison, serving time for a crime he didn’t commit.

I am using the David Jeremiah Study Bible for my annual read-through and in his notes he has a list of 10 events that, individually, look like extremely unfair circumstances or incredible coincidences. If they were happening to me, I would be thinking how I just can’t catch a break.

However, Dr. Jeremiah points out that each of these had to happen, in the order they happened, for Joseph to be brought before Pharaoh to interpret his dream.  And it was through this final event that God saved Israel and continued the line from which Jesus would be born.

What are you going through right now that is difficult to understand? What has happened to you or someone you love in the past that eats you up because you are sure it altered their life course and there is no hope of correction?

I encourage you to sit down and look at those old Bible stories with eyes that see the real live people that lived them. Put yourself in the story. They were just as human as you and I. They asked the same questions and received the same, often seemingly inadequate answers. But they put their faith in the One who was writing the story.

I want to be found faithful, too. How about you?