Genesis 48:12-13
And Joseph brought them out from between his knees…
… and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near unto him.

The boys were clinging to Joseph, tucked in close to their dad. Then Joseph brings them forward, bows before his father, and carefully positions them so the blessing will fall the way he expects.

Manasseh is the firstborn, so Joseph places him where Jacob’s right hand can rest on him. Ephraim is placed on the other side. Everything is arranged. Everything is orderly. Everything makes sense.

Joseph has it all lined up.

And that is often how we are. We like to have things in order. We like to think we know how the Lord should work. We place this here, that there, and assume the blessing ought to fall according to what seems right to us.

Joseph was not being careless. He was doing what made sense.

But the Lord is not bound by what makes sense to us.

Joseph saw birth order. God saw something deeper. Joseph saw the natural arrangement. God saw the larger purpose. Joseph had the boys exactly where he thought they should be, but the Lord was about to show that His hand does not move according to human custom.

That helps me.

Because there have been plenty of times when I had things figured out, or so I thought. I knew how I believed the Lord should answer, who should be used, how the outcome ought to look. And then the Lord did something different.

Not wrong.
Different.

He crossed the hands.

That is hard on the flesh because we like predictability. But the Lord does not ask us to manage His blessing. He asks us to trust Him. He sees what we do not. He knows what He is doing. And when He orders things differently than we expected, it is not confusion. It is wisdom.

Joseph had a plan. God had a purpose.

And the purpose was better.