- From Genesis 45
The world needs constant reminders that the roots of Christianity are good. But in the end, it always comes back to that understanding. The prodigal son returns, eventually. Most people (I say "most") are fortunate to have some memories from way back . . . good memories of a good person that modeled what it is to be Christlike. They may rebel. They may even do violence to that person. But regardless of our propensity to serve ourselves; to do wrong . . . we are hardwired with a yearning for The Good.
Joseph was a good boy. He was a low-maintenance son. He did not argue with his parents. He did not lie. He did only what would please his mother and father, especially his father. While the others were out working, he stayed nearby. He was especially helpful to his folks as they got on in years. He would go out and retrieve heavy items that his parents could no longer lift. When they were tired and aching, he served them water and food. He checked in on them while they slept.
As a teenager, he was not needy in the sense of having to go out and date. He did not have to go "experiment" with girls, about anything. His father had taught him a moral and ethical code that he followed. But his brothers would go out drinking and carousing. They would warn Joseph not to tell their father. But if Jacob asked Joseph where his brothers were, he would tell him the truth. Joseph always told the truth to his father. He told the truth to everybody.
Joseph was not out drawing attention to himself. He did not need to validate himself by being a follower of this or that movement. He did not "virtue signal." He didn't need to. He was focused on the first, most urgent thing God placed in his life: his family, beginning with his parents. This is the first and most urgent thing God places in any of our lives.
Joseph was artistic. He could write verse and music. He was a great story-teller. But he was also a good listener. He did not force his music on his parents. But he noticed the music that his parents loved, and he made sure that this is what was played around the house.
While his brothers focused on the here and now, the urgent needs of the flesh, Joseph was focused on eternal urgency. He could practice eternal habits by being a good son.
And his brothers hated him.
In the end . . . when Joseph was gone, his brothers missed him, terribly. They missed him because they had done great harm to him. It never feels good to act out hate; not in the long run. The racists in the segregated South; the enablers of German Nazism - - - they all wept bitterly, later on, when tempers died down and they faced the truth that they had been participants in devilish evil.
But most of all, they missed him because they missed The Good. The Good is an important presence in our lives, even if we resist it.
The world acts like it hates the concepts of life; of liberty; of purity; of Goodness. But if those voices were gone, the world would become engulfed in such darkness as to reduce us all to whimpering hopelessness. We're Joseph's brothers. We hate those "goody two-shoes."
But we need them.
The Good Stuff of Christianity is the influence of higher aspirations, of eternal values, that, whether we like it or not, elevate all of us. We would miss it, if it were gone.
When we're young we want to get away, when we're old we want to go back.
And we spend our lives replacing all the things we leave behind.
- Mel Tillis
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