When father and son were at last together again after 22 years, the first thing Jacob must have asked Joseph was, "I thought you had been killed by a wild animal. What happened to you? How did you end up in Egypt?" Joseph's answer would determine the future of that family. Knowing Joseph as we do it's certain he neither lied nor hid information from his father. When asked, he surely revealed the horrible betrayal he and his father suffered at the hands of his brothers. This information alone would have hit Jacob like a blow to the stomach. It easily could have alienated him permanently from his sons and thrown him back into depression, disintegrating what was left of an already troubled family. But this is not what happened, and we have to ask the question, "Why? Why didn't Jacob turn in hatred against his sons?" The answer must lie largely with Joseph. He must have helped his father process the terrible truth he told him. Ironically, the only person who could save the family was the one who had been hurt most deeply by it. Only he had the right to beg his father for mercy for his brothers or help him process the pain of betrayal.

Many of us are in families or friendships which have disintegrated because of an outrageous betrayal of trust. Something has been done or said that stabbed the relationship in the heart like a knife so that it seems there is now no hope that love could ever flow there again. Yet, as we observe Joseph's role in the healing of his family, we see how damaged relationships, even those that seem doomed, can be restored by God.

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