One day two disgraced noblemen languishing away in prison were seen by a young foreigner, a slave held in the same prison. They were the picture of despair. The young man noticed their woeful looks and stopped to ask what the cause of their sorrow was. They each told him their story and he was able to give them a solution. Shortly afterwards the lives of both men took very different turns just as the young man had said. Much later a problem arose in the realm and one of the noblemen who had in the meantime regained his place of honour remembered the young man who had been of such help to him and was convinced that he held the key to the intractable problem they now faced. The young man was taken out of prison to solve the problem, he did, and was amply rewarded with freedom, honour and much glory. What triggered his deliverance ? It was neither his charisma nor his gifts ? Rather it was his love, the fact that one day he stopped to care for two sorrowful men.
Had he, like some of us are wont to do, simply decided to walk past them thinking to himself ‘well, they have had an easy time of it so far, nobility and all, let them get a taste of pain, won’t hurt them, why should i care’, he would have missed the open door God was putting before him. How often we read through the story of Joseph and the baker and cupbearer of Pharaoh without noticing that it was not a power gift that freed him, it was an act of love. Misfortune does not justify indifference. It is a narrow, selfish life that waits till all is perfect before showing interest in and caring for others. After much praying, there is need for much loving. Joseph asked a question that changed his own destiny. Had he not cared about their wellbeing, he would not have heard their dreams, he would not have interpreted them, he would not have had access to the king, he would have stayed in jail, he… Your gifts open doors before you, but it is love that builds those doors.
Shalom !