The story of Joseph in the Bible is the story of a man who grew up by getting over himself.
We are not talking about Joseph, the husband of Mary. We are talking about a much earlier Joseph, the son of Jacob, one of the patriarchs. This Joseph was insufferable as a teenager. He had an inflated sense of his own importance. He liked to call attention to himself. He was so obnoxious that his brothers could not stand to talk with him.
Sometimes it takes a little suffering to help a person mature. Joseph endured more than a little suffering. His brothers, fed up with him, thought about killing him, and settled for selling him into slavery in another country. Things went from bad to worse. He was falsely accused of a crime and thrown into prison for several years. Joseph learned a few things in jail. He learned compassion for others. He learned how to use his unique gifts in service of a greater cause. Through suffering, Joseph learned that the world was bigger than himself. He learned it wasn’t all about it.
The path to maturity is a long one. It doesn’t happen overnight. We are not one person on Tuesday and a different person on Wednesday. Through a turn of divinely appointed events, Joseph met up with his brothers twenty years later. Was it a blissful reunion? Or did he seek revenge? It was a little bit of both. Joseph was a far more mature person than in his teenage years. He still could be a teenager to some extent. The path to maturity is a long one. It does not happen overnight.
By the end of the story, Joseph is a changed man. He has nothing but compassion for his family. He sees how the hand of God was at work in the events that took place, including the times life was tough for him. He learned that it wasn’t all about him. Joseph finally got over himself, and grew up.