Finding my Family

“Then Israel said, ‘It is enough. Joseph son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.” Genesis 45:28

One of the most tragic events of modern Korean history is the Korean War. It broke out in 1950 and it lasted for 3 years. A cease-fire treaty had been signed to take a break and that break has been lasting until now. Technically we are still at war. When the war started a lot of families were separated. As they were separated, they thought that this would be a temporary separation. But these families have been separated for over 60 years now. According to statistics in the 1980s there were at least 10 million people in South Korea that had families in the north. Since there were 40 million South Koreans during that time, approximately, a quarter of Koreans have families in the north.

The South Korean government and the north had come to an agreement to let the families meet in 1983. So the search to find families started. They had no idea whether the families were living or not so they had to make banners so that the television cameras can air them. The TV show holds the record of airing the program for 138 days non-stop. Over 53,000 cases were aired and 10,187 people actually found their families in the north and were able to talk to them over the phone. In 2015, over half of the people died without finding their families.

Here we have Israel, whose former name is Jacob. He lost his son many years ago. He thought his son Joseph was dead. And now as he finds out that Joseph is alive and that he is the prime minister of Egypt, he gets prepared to see his son. What a dramatic story!

I wonder if this is our story. We have been long separated from God due to our sins. God has made it possible for us to be together again through Jesus. The only thing in between is our choice to accept Jesus as our Savior. Only then, we can be together with Him again.