I’ve been sitting with Joseph the past few weeks. Listening to him tell his story. I felt his innocent surprise at his brothers reaction to his dream. I felt the fear of the hole, the shock of the betrayal, the horror in each step taking him further from home. The hope he nurtured in Potiphar’s home that became agonizing, and ended with injustice beyond his control. He could have caved, but he didn’t. And still he was punished.

The endless self doubt, shame, and fear that he failed God, that he must have heard wrong, were the blanket he wrapped around himself those long years in prison. And when God came to read the dreams through him, he finally saw the end. The two years that followed were worse than any that came before them. Because now he’d lost his last gift. Hope.

Then, in an instant, out of nowhere, he’s pulled from the prison of his mind, cleaned of the filth of his past, and standing before Pharaoh. Without hesitation, with courage he spoke. And he was heard. Raised to the highest place he could hold in the land, a foreigner in the house of Pharaoh. When he wept at the sight of his brothers, the pain was still more raw than he could have ever known, deeper than any place he could control. Ripping fresh blood from a place in his soul he’d never known. Beautiful, beautiful Joseph.  That pain rocked by his moans. It was the first time he saw God’s full plan, in the eyes of Benjamin… 

Chosen is a silent, soul crushing path walked alone with God. Until it’s time. 

And only God knows when. Until they move, your manna is trust, your clothing is hate, your face is dirty, your feet calloused from the path. You stink, your only friends are the prison rats.  You sit in the filth you didn’t create. And you wait. 

You nurture all you have left, the quiet song in your broken soul that still knows love. Like a baby knows the voice of their mother, muffled by layers of flesh and blood. You wait, wrapped in the gentle rocking motion of their song, until they push you out. Fresh and new. Singing a song to the world of their love. Welcome home Chosen one. Your time has come.