A Coat of Many Colors

by Mary Hill
Published November 16, 2005

I look out my window today. Crackling, crisp air blows through the trees. Some trees still have multicolored leaves of brilliant mixtures of orange and red. The trees remind me of a story from Genesis in the Bible about a coat of many colors worn by a boy named Joseph.

The coat had brilliant colors just like the old oak and maple trees in my community. His father made the coat for him because he loved him. That love caused his eleven brothers to become jealous of him. Their jealousy evolved to deadly anger when Joseph told them about a dream. He dreamed that all the stars and moon bowed down to him.

Joseph fell too like fall leaves. His brothers threw him into a pit and told slave traders where he was. The brothers then took the Coat of Many Colors, dipped it in blood, and told their father Joseph was dead.

Fall signals winter’s coming. Joseph went through his own wintertime of dying and changing after the slaver traders sold him into Egypt. He served as a slave in a prestigious Egyptian home, but the wife accused him of rape, and his master threw him in jail where he remained for many years until he attracted the grace of Pharaoh because of his dreams. Winter ended for Joseph with victory. God called Him to save his people during time of drought. God called him to a time of forgiveness when he embraced the brothers who betrayed him.

This Fall, Lord, I want to dream Joseph dreams. I want my own Coat of Many Colors. I want my heart filled with Thanksgiving as you direct my life in ways I never imagined.

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