May 29, 2010 – Genesis 40

If you have ever seen Joseph and the Technicolor Dream coat, this story of Joseph should be very familiar. I love the (some might call it innocence) naiveté of Joseph. He is thrown into jail because of it, really traded to slavery because of it. Here, he gives these interpretations and makes his request in a very, childlike manner. I also get a kick out of the baker. He hears that the cupbearer received good news and assumes that he will receive it as well. It makes you think about the saying Kill the Messenger or Bearer of Bad news. We never like to hear bad news, or we choose to ignore it sometimes. We are so odd in that we long for people to be honest with us, but get angry when that honesty isn’t what we want to hear. Then we wonder why we have trust issues. When people are afraid to tell you the truth, how can you ever trust anyone. It would appear that many young celebrities may go through an extreme of this. They go through the developmental years of their lives never being given anything but good news and praise and when something happens that can’t be glossed over, they can’t handle it. What makes me nervous is that many people are being taught how to raise their families by either watching these celebrities, watching celebrity TV shows, reading books by the people that groom the celebrities. We seem to want to raise children that never have to hear bad news or anything real. We shelter children because we don’t think hearing what is actually going on is good for them. What happens when they have to leave. How do they deal with bad news when they have never had to deal with it before.