By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
Hebrews 11:22 (NIV)
What Joseph Asked For
The thread is waxed and thick enough to feel between two fingers, and it comes off a cone the size of a quart jar. The man running the machine in the auto upholstery shop says the stitching will outlast the foam under it, and he says it the way people say things they’ve watched happen.
A seat frame is up on sawhorses with the springs showing. The car it goes back into belongs to a customer who’s been bringing parts in one at a time for two years and hasn’t driven it yet.
Joseph was dying in Egypt, and he talked about the Israelites leaving it. “By faith Joseph, when his end was near, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.” He gave directions for his own bones, to be followed by people on a day he wouldn’t be alive for.
Near the end, Joseph arranged the one piece of the leaving he could reach. He would die in Egypt, and he left instructions for the people who would go without him.
Joseph made arrangements around a promise the way other men make arrangements around property. He believed it enough to be inconvenient about it. The people who came after him had to remember, and they had to carry the bones out of Egypt with them.
He treated that leaving as a thing that was going to happen, and he gave orders about his own bones. He gave orders for a day he wouldn’t live to see.
A woman comes into the shop carrying a door panel he stitched for her father years ago, and she wants to know what thread he used.
A Prayer to Remember
I’ve stayed away from the work whose results land after I’m gone, Lord. I’ve picked the jobs I get to see finished, and called that being practical. Teach me to want something I won’t be here to watch. Give me the steadiness to say it plainly to the people who’ll still be around when it comes.
In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
