“Joseph said to his brothers, . . . “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.’” Genesis 45:4-5

“You tried to harm me, but God made it turn out for the best, so that he could save all these people, as he is now doing.” Genesis 50:20

*The story of Joseph and his brothers has fascinated generations of people for thousands of years. Sold into slavery in Egypt by his jealous brothers, Joseph eventually rises to a position of great authority and saves both Egypt and his own family from famine. Along the way, he endures separation from his family, slavery, false accusations, and imprisonment. It is during his imprisonment that his ability to interpret dreams becomes known. That gift allows him to interpret Pharaoh’s dream, which foretells seven years of plenty followed by seven years of drought and famine. After explaining what must be done to prepare for the coming famine, Pharaoh places Joseph in charge of the effort.

Forced by the drought, Joseph’s brothers go to Egypt, where they have heard there is grain to buy for the families. In Egypt, they find  themselves face to face, with the brother they betrayed. In the past, Joseph must have fantasized many times over what he would do, if he ever laid eyes on his devious brothers again. But the reality is, that the brothers who sold him into Egypt as a slave, were very different from these much older brothers. They are not the same people, having learned the painful lesson of their father’s grief over his lost son. Every day, they carried the guilt of that moment.

Meanwhile, in Egypt, Joseph has risen to be almost equal to pharaoh. Looking back over his lifetime, he realizes God had prepared him for moment.  Standing in front of his brothers, reflecting on the journey that took him to Egypt, he concluded, that what they meant for evil, God had rewritten for good.

Joseph is the kind of person who finds good in the worst situations possible. He could have become a bitter, angry person at the injustices he experienced. Instead he  chose to make the best of a bad situation, relying on God to get him through.

When my niece died in 2022 from a glioblastoma brain tumor, her five siblings decided to honor her memory, by raising money for research.  In the years since they have raised $230,000  through an annual event, they call “Dollars for Deb,” giving half of the funds raised to Mayo Clinic’s research into glioblastoma, while using the other half to provide financial support for people with cancer.

Deb’s family turned the loss of their beloved sibling into a way of drawing some good out of it. They cannot bring Deb back, but they have chosen to honor her through their actions, keeping her memory alive, by bringing healing and hope to others.

To have the eyes of a Joseph, is to be open to the movement of God in our lives. It is to see God’s hand upon us, in our hardest and most painful moments, and to know that wherever we find ourselves, we are never apart from God who loves us, and loves us abundantly . . . It is to know, that pain, heartache and sorrow, will someday give way, to a future hope and joy, even as God rewrites our story.

*The full story of Joseph and his brothers can be found in the biblical book of Genesis, in chapters 37 through chapter 50.