I never thought I'd find myself making my own thread here o.O but here I go. 🙂 Today, much to my surprise, I found myself writing this story about one of my (many, many) favorite Bible characters:

Joseph's Song in Prison

Joseph was cast into prison when I had been there myself for a short time only. His story was not much different from my own, yet he was so different from me. I had been stolen from my family and sold into slavery in Egypt; Joseph's jealous brothers had sold him to slave traders who had brought him to Egypt and sold him to Potiphar. Like me, Joseph had been imprisoned because of the lies of a false witness. Yet, while I had spent my days lamenting my tribulations, Joseph actually went around making himself useful to anyone who could use a little help, singing cheerfully all the while!

He sang of being a stranger in a strange land. He sang of sheaves bowing to another sheaf, and the sun and moon and stars bowing to another star. As he went about his duties dressed in rags, he sang about being dressed in a coat of many colors. But most of all, he sang about a god (who was very different from all the gods of the Egyptians or the gods of my people), and he sang of how his god prospered those who obeyed him.

I wondered how Joseph could believe in this god if he would let him be where he was now--Joseph was not prospered by the god he obeyed! He was like me: a slave far from his home who had gained favor in his master's eyes, only to be accused for a crime he had never committed and thrown into prison! With a sort of grim pleasure, I sat back and waited for Joseph to finally realize that his trust in his god was in vain.

I watched, and bitterly, I waited. But Joseph never lost courage. In fact, after waiting an entire moon, I realized that Joseph had no reason to doubt in this god of his: whatever he did was prospered; his honesty and cheerfulness and his entire character was proof to me and everyone else that he was guilty of no wrong. Joseph gained favor in the eyes of the keeper of the prison, who committed the prison and all the prisoners to Joseph's hand. The keeper of the prison had no need to concern himself with anything that was entrusted to Joseph's care. A strong sense of peace and joy and hope settled down on the entire prison. Can you even imagine that? a joyful, hopeful prison! I did not know what to think of these things.

"Your god has strange ideas of how to prosper his followers," I told Joseph one day. "Instead of showering you with riches and honor and protecting you from all disgrace and trouble and heartache, he lets you be sold as a slave, to be falsely accused and imprisoned, and then prospers you in prison."

Joseph laughed, then said seriously, "The true and living God does His works in peculiar ways that are impossible to deny."

I nodded thoughtfully. For the next several days, I thought of Joseph's god, whose works were nothing like what I would expect a god to do, but which I could not, in any honesty, deny. And then there were the gods of Egypt, the gods of my people, the gods of all the peoples of the world, who were said to be mighty enough to do many marvelous works--but whose works always left me doubting, deep in my heart, that these gods were truly powerful at all. It could be one of my gods, or one of Egypt's gods, or one of anyone else's gods, who made prosperous years or years of famine, who put kings in power, who blessed a couple with children or withheld children, but I was never convinced, and none of those gods ever did anything to prove that they were responsible for these wonders and not someone else. Joseph's God, on the other hand...

By the end of several days of deep thought, I had, in fact, come to the conclusion that Joseph was right: his was the only true and living God.

"Teach me about God," I asked Joseph.

"I will," he said, and sang to me about the true and living God of all mankind.