We saw yesterday that Joseph took his work seriously, even as a slave and then a prisoner, and that God honored that. Work is valuable in and of itself – an extension of God’s work in the world.

Work also puts us in the position to serve our co-workers and our clients. We serve by our work by just doing the job, and we serve people at our work. No one exemplifies this better than Joseph in the well-known story of the dreams of the butler and baker in prison:

As time went on, it happened that the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt crossed their master, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the head cupbearer and the head baker, and put them in custody under the captain of the guard; it was the same jail where Joseph was held. The captain of the guard assigned Joseph to see to their needs. After they had been in custody for a while, the king’s cupbearer and baker, while being held in the jail, both had a dream on the same night, each dream having its own meaning. When Joseph arrived in the morning, he noticed that they were feeling low. So he asked them, the two officials of Pharaoh who had been thrown into jail with him, “What’s wrong? Why the long faces?” (Genesis 40.1 – 7, MSG)

Did you see it? I don’t know that I would notice that two guys in prison were feeling worse on a particular day than they normally did. I expect they always had long faces! But on this day, they were longer than usual, and Joseph noticed. He went on to interpret their dreams, of course, and that set him up for the important action in chapter 41.

I hope our antennas are up to serve those around us. Sometimes the service is easy – provided we notice the need.

Now as Jesus passed by, He saw a man who was blind from birth. (John 9.1, NKJV)