Recently, on my way to work, I was listening through the book of Genesis and I heard the story of Joseph again. In Genesis 45, Joseph tells his brothers that,
7 And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. 8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but God;
And then in Genesis 50, he tells them again,
19 Joseph said to them, “Do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? 20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. 21 Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your little ones.” And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them.
I started thinking about Tina’s life when she was a child compared to what it is now. I started comparing Joseph’s life with those who have gone through some terrible things in their life. Some things that are just too horrific to tell. I know there are things that have happened to Tina that she has never told me or anyone else.
Then I got to thinking, “who am I to compare people’s lives today to those in the Bible?” This thought crosses my mind of how special they are to be included in God’s Word. We hold them up as examples but I also understand that they are ordinary people, just like you and me, that God has included in His Book to give us people that we can relate to and feel connected to “His Story,” the story of those who believed and followed Him and knew that He is in control of it ALL.
Tina had a horrible, ugly past but she can now say that God brought me to a place, the here and now, and even though you did evil against me, God meant it for good. He is using it to bring good, not only in my life, but in the lives of others. Now Tina can say, I have a beautiful life and a beautiful future and now God can use me to “save many people” from abuse and to “bring about a great deliverance.”
We don’t know what the future holds but we’ve seen God work. We’ve heard how Tina’s ugly past is helping others find a beautiful future. We’ve personally been able to help deliver others from abusive pasts and prayerfully to beautiful futures. We plan to continue to be used by God to help rescue others from physical, sexual, and spiritual abuse and bring about a “great deliverance.”
