As my husband and I reflected on 2025, I told him that this year felt like a filler episode. In television, filler episodes don’t advance the main plot; instead they serve as placeholders until the main story resumes. Sometimes they’re used to keep a show from outpacing its source material. For many viewers, fillers are unwelcome interruptions to the regularly scheduled programming, and that’s exactly what this year felt like to me, a detour right in the middle of the story I thought was being written.
A new year usually arrives with a sense of momentum: renewed dedication to unfinished goals and fresh hope for what’s to come. But 2025 felt more like a pause than a progression. New characters were unlocked, unexpected themes emerged, and conflicts concluded entirely within the boundaries of this one isolated episode. And now, instead of going forward with this new plot, I get a strong sense that 2026 is going to pick up directly where 2024 left off.
A similar pattern can be found in the account of one of my favorite biblical characters, Joseph. His story begins in Genesis 37, only to be interrupted by what seems like a filler episode of its own. The story resumes in Chapter 39 and continues through the end of Genesis, concluding in Chapter 50. At first glance, it seems odd that nestled right in the middle of Joseph’s narrative is the story of Judah and his twice-widowed daughter-in-law, Tamar. But with a closer look, you realize that there’s more to this story within a story.
The Main Story
The Bible is filled with countless stories I’ve enjoyed reading since I was a kid, stories following the lives of Joseph, David, Daniel, and so many others. But if we’re not careful, we can focus so much on each character’s unique experiences that we miss the main plot, the single thread that ties them all together.
The same is true of our own lives. We can become so absorbed in what’s unfolding in our personal stories that we forget we’re only a subplot within a much bigger story, one that begins and ends with a Father’s love.
The Gap Year
God flipped the script and added a filler episode to my life, one I like to call The Gap Year. When He pressed pause, I finally sat with the disappointment of my choices and the regret of how poorly I had managed what God entrusted to me, things that, in the past, were easily clouded by busyness. I saw more clearly the contrast between human frailty and His sovereignty. And in the midst of it all, I witnessed His faithful Hand at work, moving in and through my life, in spite of me.
Judah experienced his own pause in Genesis 38. After instigating the sale of his brother Joseph into slavery, it’s not surprising that he would also dishonor his daughter-in-law Tamar just one chapter later. However, by the end of the chapter, Judah acknowledges his failures and repents, a turning point that shapes the generations to follow. Threaded through the entire account is God’s unwavering commitment to the promise He made in Genesis 12, a promise He continues to fulfill today.
What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? - Romans 3:3 ESV
A gap year wasn’t on my bingo card for 2025, but it turned out to be exactly what the doctor ordered. I needed to slow down so I could catch up to the story God is writing in my life, one that is far more beautiful than anything I could write on my own. In this story God is not just a guest star but the main character, and His love, goodness, and faithfulness take center stage.