And Israel said, “It is enough; Joseph my son is still
alive. I will go and see him before I die.”
—Genesis 45:28
It
is enough, I read the words of Jacob (also called Israel).
Enough.
I
let the word seep into my soul. Enough. Jacob’s
final wish before he died…his only wish…his only prayer was to see his son alive
who he had believed was dead.
I have read the story many times, but never before had it
impacted me as much as when I read it earlier this week. When I read how Joseph’s
jealous brothers sold him into slavery and then deceived their father into
thinking he had been killed by a vicious animal (Genesis
37:12-33), I was outraged. When I read the account of Jacob’s grief (Genesis
37:34-35), my mother’s heart ached for him. I tried to imagine how he must
have felt, but I could only shudder at the thought of losing one of my own.
