Two random thoughts from Genesis...

...Read Genesis 45 this morning, and after Joseph makes himself known to his brothers (who had done him this great wrong, but which God used to bring them salvation), “moreover he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them.” And I could not help but think of the Pax in the Divine Service, where the Son of God, after the great wrong done Him, turns to us and speaks His peace and offers us the kiss of peace, for He loves us through it all, and the proof is in what He suffered and what He gives: His body and His blood for our forgiveness.

...Read Genesis 46 this evening, and when Jacob at long last sees that his beloved Joseph is alive, he says: “Now let me die, since I have seen thy face, because thou art yet alive.” And again, an echo of the Nunc Dimittis where St. Simeon basically says the thing upon beholding that the face of the Savior was alive, and how we are blessed to take his words upon our lips after receiving the Holy Eucharist in which the same Lord shines His face upon us to give us peace.