When Time Stands Still, God Doesn't

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n July, 2013, I spent the vast majority of a day at 35,000 feet, returning to the United States from France where I had spent the previous six weeks working for our university’s study abroad program.  After boarding the aircraft, buckling my seat belt, and arranging my carry-on underneath my seat, I turned my attention to the viewing screen to watch the information about what to do in the event of a crash landing.  Honestly, this is my least favorite part of travelling.

A few moments after the video, the captain greeted us and informed us that we would be in the air for the next ten and a half hours as we made our way across the Atlantic to eventually land at the Dallas/Fort Worth airport.  I briefly glanced at my watch, took a deep breath, let the reality of what I was about to endure settle in, and then enjoyed the ride.

Every time I travel abroad, I am intrigued most by the difference in time between one place and another.  We all live in the same moment but how we measure it is different.  In France, the clock is 7 hours ahead of the time here, Fort Worth.  Going to France I lose time; coming from France, I gain it.  Gaining time is the most difficult for me because it seems that time just stands still.

This is the way, I believe, Joseph felt when the chief cupbearer forgot him in prison.  Joseph had done nothing to deserve the circumstances in which he found himself.  His brothers betrayed him because they were jealous, he was imprisoned because Potiphar’s falsely accused him, and, after promising Joseph he would remember him, the cupbearer forgot his promise to speak to Pharaoh about Joseph to get him out of prison.

Genesis 41:1 records in a few words Joseph’s plight, “When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream…”  The first six words tell it all, don’t they?  Joseph remained in prison for two years after the cupbearer was freed.  For Joseph, time stood still. In fact, he had been sold into slavery by his brothers when he was 17 years old and when we find him here, he is 30 years old.  For 13 years this man’s life was put on hold.  He had no news of his family, of his homeland, and did not know whether he would ever see them again.

But although the cupbearer forgot Joseph, God didn’t. God did not stop caring for Joseph. He didn’t stop listening to him, he didn’t stop loving him, and he didn’t stop working in his life.  In fact, unknown to Joseph, God was at work for 13 years preparing both Pharaoh and Joseph for the purpose that brought him to Egypt.  God’s purpose in doing so was to fulfill the promise made to Abraham before the birth of Isaac that Abraham’s descendants would be strangers for 400 years and would then come into the Promised Land at the appointed time.  Although time appeared to stand still, God was moving forward!

The same is true for us today.  You may be in a holding pattern today.  You don’t know where God is and you wonder if, like the cupbearer, he has forgotten you.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  God is working so far ahead of you, preparing the way ahead, and making sure you are ready for what he has in store for you.  Remember, when time stands still, our God doesn’t!