A moment that changes everything – Vayyiggash
Judah converses with Joseph, by James Tissot
We all have decisive moments like that. A person arrives on the scene, a situation emerges, a challenge presents itself. All of a sudden, life is different – either life itself, or our way of thinking.
A couple who see each other for the first time know – either then or years later – that this is what created their marriage and their destiny. A student encounters an unforgettable teacher who makes such an impression that the pupil’s mind is indelibly affected.
An opportunity opens up and a new career commences, a new achievement is made possible, a new victory. Even a failure, a disaster, a loss – it chastens us but allows us the chance to rise above it.
We all have our own life’s experiences that change everything. Significantly, these moments were really often God bursting onto our consciousness.
True, sophisticated people sometimes find it hard to acknowledge their God-moments, but on reflection they realise that that is what has happened to them: they have seen God working in strange ways.
This is what Joseph tells his brothers when he reveals himself to them in Egypt (Gen. 45): “I am Joseph, (and) it was God who sent me here to save life”.
