The Grand Family Reunion

“As soon as he appeared before Jacob, Joseph threw his arms around his father and wept for a long time.”  Genesis 46:29

The Grand Family Reunion!

By Rev. William Dohle

Growing up I use to think I come from such a large family.  My family numbered thirteen of us in all.  It included… Me, my three siblings, my father and mother, my aunt and uncle, their three children, and my grandmother and her husband.  Thirteen of us in all.

I use to think that was a pretty large family.  Now I know that my family was really quite small.

I have met people whose families are huge!  Families who number in the hundreds with all the kids, their spouses, grandkids, aunts and uncles and cousins.  Talk about a family reunion!  Of course they don’t see each other except on family reunion days which makes their numbers manageable, but still.   Wow!

Well…  imagine a family reunion.  A big, huge family reunion.  Imagine being just one person in, say, 70 brothers and sisters, all with their own children and wives.   Imagine the chaos moving that group of people.  Planning for their arrival.  Imagine how lost you might feel in such a crowd.  “Who notices me?” you might say.  “I’m a nobody.”

Joseph might have thought that before his homecoming.  Seeing his family at a distance with, I’m sure, more people there than when he left, Joseph very well could have felt overwhelmed.  “What does my father care about me,” he could have thought.  “I’m just one person in this crowd!”

But that was not the case.  Joseph was special.  Joseph was unique.  Joseph…was Jacob’s son!

And so, as his family made their way into the region of Goshen, Joseph had his chariot ready to meet his father.  And, as soon as the two saw each other, Joseph and Jacob threw their arms around heach other and wept.

Jacob says: “Now I am ready to die, since I have seen for myself that you are still alive.”

And the family reunion commences.

But we must remember  that this isn’t a happily ever after.  Problems still exist in the family.  The homecoming is sweet, but the journey into Egypt has just begun.  And there’s still Joseph’s brothers’ guilt to contend with.

But for now there is joy!

Our family reunions can feel like the same mixture of things.  We are glad when we can gather together, but, as often happens, our sinfulness can impede our true joy.  We remember how annoyed we are Aunt so and so and how she doesn’t seem to care for us.  We get upset with our cousins and how they treat us and each other.  We growl at our mother-in-law and wish she’d get out of our business.   We snarl at our daughter-in-laws and how they are raising our grandkids.

And in the end we’re all so grateful to be in our own cars driving away from the family reunion we’ve looked forward to all year long.  So much for the joy of the family reunion.  Now we'll have twelve more months to forget about all the hassle our family truly is.

But what if there was a way to bottle what we love about families reunions.  To have the reunion of the century without all the headache that comes with the family?  What if there was a way that we could live in that moment of joy forever?  To enjoy a family reunion and not be burdened with all the baggage our sinfulness brings?

Perhaps our heavenly homecoming will be such a grand family reunion.  Perhaps heaven is really a grand party where we meet our immediate family and see how we are connected with everyone else in the family of God.  Perhaps there all the baggage that divides us from each other will be taken away.  Perhaps we will see our family members how God sees them.  And, just perhaps, there’s enough family members that if you were to meet and know them all it would take an eternity just to meet them all.

What a family reunion that would be!

And, of course in such a place, the first person to meet you at that grand party isn’t a staunch St. Peter with a book full of wrongs you have done, but Jesus Christ, his arms open wide running at you to scoop you up for the biggest bear hug in the world, just as Jacob did when he saw his son he thought was dead coming to him that day so long ago.

God of Jacob, we see in your Joseph’s homecoming a foretaste of our own homecoming in heaven.  Forgive us in the meantime and give us strength that we might love our families as you love us.  Amen.