ואתם חשבתם עלי רעה אלקים חשבה לטבה ... (נ-כ)
MASHAL: A simple fellow was traveling and found himself in a far-away city for the upcoming Shabbos. Not far from his hotel room, he found a large shul and attended all the prayers there. When it came time to read from the Torah, he was fascinated by the choice of people who were called up to the Torah. Instead of following a more logical approach of calling up people by sections, the gabbai seemed to have no specific method. He called up random people from random sections of the shul in a totally confusing manner.
After prayers were finished, to his great delight, the gabbai approached the “guest” with traditional Shabbos greetings. “Where are you from,” he inquired with a smile, “is there anything you need here in our ‘remote location’?”
“Well actually,” began the guest, “I’m pretty well-stocked with all the provisions I need for Shabbos. However, if you don’t mind me asking, please explain to me your seemingly random way of calling attendees up to the Torah?”
“You don’t understand,” replied the gabbai, “because you came for one week, so you don’t see the whole picture. Every person was called up for a reason; a simcha, a yahrzeit or a simple birthday. Stick around for a few years and you’ll understand the sketching in its entire form!”
NIMSHAL: We come to this world for a couple of years and expect to understand everything going on. Unfortunately for us, some pictures are drawn over the course of many years and we don’t always see the end or connect the dots. However, we can reinforce our emunah in Hashem when we do see a years-long tableau coming to a beautiful end. This was Yosef’s message to his brothers, and the inspiring message that can be “drawn” from it for all of eternity.