Making sense of things

Joseph said to his father, "Not so, my father! Since this one is the firstborn, put your right hand on his head."

¹⁹ But his father refused, and said, "I know, my son, I know; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great. Nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his offspring shall become a multitude of nations."

Sometimes it just doesn't turn out like we think it should, does it?

Our parents give the younger siblings something we feel like we should have because after all, we got here first didn't we? When I read this passage this morning I thought of King David---the youngest of his brothers---whom Jesse assumed wouldn't be God's chosen because he was just a kid. To top it all off, he wasn't just just a kid, he was the youngest boy in the family too. God doesn't always seem to make a lot of sense.

My older brother likes to tell me how much meaner our parents were when he was growing up. How he never would have gotten away with half the stuff we did. I think the early Christians--the Jewish ones-- probably felt the same way about the gentile Christians. The council of Jerusalem must have left them feeling flat. These newbies--these 'kids'-- didn't have to keep the law to follow the Way. What a disappointment! From what I've heard, the Church is easing up on us younger folks too. It used to involve more work to be a Christian! Did it? Was the point of the whole thing ever really keeping ritual purity laws in the first place? Or was it learning to put the Lord first? Is the point of Church not wearing lipstick during communion, keeping a doily on your head inside the doors and making sure you didn't have that first cup of coffee before you leave home? Or is it something else? There's nothing wrong with any of these things as long we don't forget that they're not the point. We have to remember what they point to--and remember that even when God doesn't seem to make a lot of sense--he makes sense.