So He was alone with his brothers when he told them who he was. Then he broke down and wept. —Genesis 45:1-2
In shock, Joseph recognizes his brothers when they come to buy food in Egypt. He hasn’t seen them since he is a young boy when they sell him into slavery in his home land.
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Love wants to reconcile.
Relationships with people you care about hurt more. Given the opportunity to reconcile, God calls us to do so. This is not a matter of can we have peace with another individual, it’s will we. Will you forgive me?
I’m sorry…I expressed out of anger.
Im sorry…I misunderstood your actions and words.
I’m sorry…if my actions and words were out of place.
I’m sorry…if my actions and words hurt you.
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Love wants to reach out.
Joseph wants peace with his brothers. He doesn’t desire to fight with them. Despite all they have done to hurt him, Joseph loves them.
He wants to forgive.
He wants to foster restoration.
He wants to find healing in their relationship.
He wants to forge a future with them as a family.
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Love wants to be real.
The other person may not love or like you. But you can still attempt peace, and love them. Joseph didn’t completely know what his brothers thought of him, but he made himself vulnerable. Because love is more than the sum of your feelings. It’s a juggle of practicality, reality, and sometimes a lapse of sanity. When you crave a crazy love that doesn’t cave to the world’s caricature of love. The real on love:
Love isn’t perfect. It doesn’t fit neatly inside a box that can be closed. It will overflow outside of the box if you try to contain it. It loves the imperfections even when it’s hard to. Love is imperfect, because we are imperfect people.
Love isn’t picturesque. It doesn’t look like the paintings where everything is in place and realistic looking. Love looks more like a child’s painting. It’s drawn from the heart, free-forming, fulfilling all the sweetness of chocolate melted on paper. It is messy, because we are messy people.
Love isn’t performance. It isn’t about what the other person does for you. It isn’t about meeting standards or making more, of money or success. It doesn’t cross the t’s and dot the i’s well, because it doesn’t care about what the world thinks. It cares deeper than performance. It cares about character, and how to help build the character of the one you love. It is deeper, because deep inside, we want to be people who love deeply.
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Love wants to resolve.
Love means making mistakes, and afterwards, doing differently than before. We start out sinners, and we end as sinners. No saint-tification, only sanctification. If we allow God to work out the in-between, to burn the dross and bring out what’s pure and good, it can help us forgive the one who hurt us, or understand how much we have hurt the other. Love can’t solve all the wounds, but it can endeavor to resolve. How we learn from our past, live in peace, and love as people in the body of Christ, shapes what we believe as believers.
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Love wants to remember.
Joseph’s story has a happy ending. But not all of our stories will be like his. Doors are open. Doors are closed. For some of us, the reconciliation doesn’t occur and the door closes before we get a chance. It doesn’t mean we stop caring. Love remembers why we loved in the first place. Love loves enough to let people make their decision to leave or stay, and still love them.
Gather what you have hoped.
Grace forgiveness to one another.
Grow in character.
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©️2020 Jordan Su