1,2 Apr -- April Fool!

Did anyone catch you out on April Fool's day? Don't worry if they did. The real fool is not someone who falls for a prank on 1st April. The real fool, as we found in the previous reading from the Psalms, is the one who says in their heart, "God does not exist." (Psalm 14:1).

In our recent readings in Genesis, we've seen how God not only exists but also sovereignly works out His plan. God repeatedly took seeming disasters in Joseph's life and transformed them in accord with His eternal purposes.

In today's reading, Joseph's brothers bow down before him (Gen 42:6). This fulfilled the dream Joseph had many years before -- of his brothers' sheaves of wheat bowing down to his. God had given the dream and now He has brought it to fulfilment through a miraculous series of events. Joseph was no fool. He knew it was the work of God.

A final thought on fools. This one comes from Jim Elliot, a missionary martyred by the Auca Indians. You've no doubt seen it before because Lydia has it at the foot of most of her emails. "He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose."