In my academic Bible course at the high school the students and I were looking together recently at the familiar story of Joseph.
Years after Joseph’s spiteful brothers sold him into slavery, the family was reunited. For the first time in more than two decades aged Jacob embraced his favorite son.
By then, of course, Joseph was a powerful man in
“Then,” Genesis 47:7 tells us, “Joseph brought his father Jacob in and presented him before Pharaoh.” This 130-year-old foreigner was allowed an audience before the ruler of the most powerful civilization in the world.
If we’re paying attention to the text, as my students were that day, the very next words in the Bible rock us back on our heels. We expect to read that the Pharaoh extended some sort of favor to Joseph’s father. But that’s not what happened. The Bible says, “Jacob blessed Pharaoh.”
It seems backward, doesn’t it? Surely, we think, the king would bless the commoner. But the roles were reversed.
Does this twist in the story surprise you? Not me. Because I have an elderly father who blesses people wherever he goes. Literally around the world he has been welcomed because people have known that his coming would bring them laughter and love and spiritual insight.
Now almost 84, like aged Jacob he may impart even more blessing than he did in his prime. Now he brings with him the tempered wisdom of years, the mellowed acumen of maturity.
My father is old, but not idle. After six decades of active ministry, he found himself a new mountain to climb. As a young man he mastered Spanish. For the past three years he has used those skills to realize a lifelong dream, writing and implementing a training curriculum for Hispanic leaders of the church.
Regular readers of my essays probably think the greatest blessing in my life is my grandchildren. Not so. As much as I love them and delight in them, I am even more grateful this Thanksgiving for blessings God has given me through the extraordinary man whom I honor as my father.