Behind Bars

 "Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were bound, and he was there in custody."   -Genesis 39:20

Jealousy, it's a sticky-uncertain thing... It makes the best of us seem fools, and the worse, well worse. A question wanders it's way through my mind. I think... What would Joseph's relationship with his family be like without it. Jealousy. And then, what would the ending be? There is a reason, I don't write eternity's story... I smile at the thought... what a mess I would be in. Joseph goes from being the most favored being of his family, to being a slave in a foreign land. Egypt. Maybe in his childhood he wondered what Egypt was like... now he was there, but he probably never guessed he would be a slave! Then back to the high point, Potiphar placed Joseph, at the tip top of his household. And then behind bars... literally now. But,

"But Yahweh was with Joseph, and showed kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison."  -Genesis 39:21

Yahweh, is so like breath... you have to breathe it, to speak it. Because Yahweh was with Joseph he was able to take his fluctuating life one breath at a time.
      Two dreams happen... They make their dreamers frustrated... they must have been vivid.  "Don't forget me." Joseph pleads... but God had other plans. I know I have bars in my life... They hurt, but I grow. Stronger. If God had not worked through the bars in Josephs life, instilling patience, and showing him to wait for His plans, would Joseph have been half the leader he was? Pharaoh gave Joseph a position almost impossible for a prisoner, like himself. God's plans are for a reason... things Satan means for evil, Yahweh, turns back for the better. I try, now, to be patient. I know it takes time for God's plans to be revealed. Patience and obedience to play their own roles in the becoming of Yahweh's great gift of life.