Feeling Better

Just wanted to make sure that not every post I put up here detailed the coming end of the world (or so it may have seemed). I do have good days and poor days, but life does go on. Have you ever been afraid to let go of something, even when you know you need to, because it has meant so much to you for so long that you almost feel... dishonest if you can drop it too easily? Maybe I'm just strange like that.

I've had piles of interesting thoughts recently (or at least, more than over the past couple months). But it seems I've been pretty busy, though I cannot remember over what.

One such thought, in brief. The song God Will Lift Your Head had a special place in my heart recently. I associated it with her, and hoped though I did not want to expressly say it, that it was a sort of sign. That may yet be the case, but not in the way I had hoped, but in the way I blogged about in the past.

But It caused me to think of the story of Joseph. Not as we often hear it ("When life sucks, remember that God is behind it and will make you second only to Pharoah"), but about the story of the cup-bearer and the baker. As I recall, they both had similar, yet different dreams that Joseph interpreted. One's head would be lifted up, meaning that he would be restored to his place of honor. The other's head would be lifted up... from his body! I remember thinking that the way Joseph revealed this seemed rather harsh - using the "good news" phrase early on, but with the dramatic "you're hosed" twist at the end.

God is always in control, but that in no way exempts us from the suckiness of life. Remember the Israelites languishing in slavery for 400 years. We see the triumph with Moses as "God heard their groaning, and remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. God saw the Israelites, and God had compassion."

It strikes me that the way this is written does not support the implication I always had - that it took God 400 years to notice their pleas. The way the book is written, it seems that way. The struggle is set up, the hero is put in place, and then God remembers and ZOOM!, everything is made better.

But the "God heard" passage is written as an aside: "During that long period of time..." It makes more sense, and is more in keeping with what I believe of God that He heard all the groanings. And was constantly reminded of His covenants with Abraham and family. And that He held back. To know that He heard tells us He was aware. To know that He remembered the covenants tells us that He cared. He knew, He cared, and He demurred.

Point: God hears and cares, even when generations come and go and He seems to be doing anything but. God's plans span the ages, and He is able to do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.