A Place of Honor

Day eighty-six

Today I have the chance to have a great start to my week.  I will have the opportunity to take the sacrament, to recommit myself to doing the Lord’s will and to start with a clean slate.  I am hopeful that the testimonies today will spiritually fill me and that the lessons prepared will bring me inspiration.  I prayed with a heart full of gratitude for these opportunities and shared my desire to be a positive influence on those that I meet today.  I asked that the day be filled with the spiritual experiences that we all need to get us through the next week and bring us closer to God.

Genesis 37

This chapter starts us into the story of Joseph.  There are many lessons that come from studying the story of Joseph’s life especially when we have been taught that Joseph is a ‘type’ of Christ.  However, I would like to compare Joseph’s life with our life.  What can we learn about ourselves from Joseph’s story?

Love:

There is no question that Joseph was well loved by his father Jacob.  Genesis 37:3 states:

“Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age: and he made him a coat of many colours”

The footnote for the word colours states: The Septuagint word indicates many colors, but the Heb. term may indicate simply a long coat with sleeves. 

 

This coat is significant because this type of coat would have been worn by someone in a place of honor.  Joseph was a righteous son who had earned the love and respect of his father. The gift of the coat would have been Jacob’s way of letting Joseph know that he loved and honored him.  

Just as Joseph’s father loved him, our Lord loves us.  We read:

“The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” (Jeremiah 31:3)

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.   Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:35-39)

Wow! That is some serious love, everlasting and inseparable. This is beyond our mortal ability to love.  As much as Jacob loved Joseph, it would be the Lord's love that ultimately saved him! The same goes for us, it will be the Lord's love that saves us in this world. 

We may not have a coat of many colors to let everyone know that the Lord loves us, but he has given us something special to let us know that His love is real:

"And that he manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith."  (2 Nephi 26:13)

I think these verses just made my day!  It is always nice to know that you are loved and to be loved in such an amazing way is a special gift.  I have come to understand that we too stand in a place of honor, next to God.