It is already late-September and I don’t know where the last month has gone. Back to school this year has felt like a really long transition and hasn’t been entirely easy. Yet, God is good and He has shown up time and time again in unexpected ways. Yesterday, as the girls and I played through the story of Joseph and his colorful coat, I resonated with God’s faithfulness in Joseph’s life.
Now we have not experienced anything like what Joseph went through. But, even my little struggles are big enough to take to God daily in prayer. And, thankfully, God doesn’t compare our struggles to others’ or prioritize who He will help. He is big enough to step into the smallest of concerns of each of us.
Isn’t it incredible that the same God who cared enough to step in and rescue Joseph from his brothers, slavery, jail, and a famine will also step into my life and give me peace, wisdom, and comfort from long days, crying babies, potty training toddlers, and overly tired 6 year olds?
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The Bible Story
As much hype as Joseph’s coat gets, it really is a very small piece of his story. Joseph’s coat may not have even been colorful, but could have just had long sleeves which set it apart. The Hebrew phrase used here is unclear, but is most often translated as having many colors because of the Greek translation in the Septuagint.
Joseph’s coat was a symbol of his status in his family as his father’s favorite. Joseph was the first son of Rachel, Jacob’s first love. This is how he became his father’s favorite. Joseph and his other brothers, Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Nephtali, Gad, and Asher each later head one of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Joseph is not humble in his position in the family, nor does Jacob hide his preferential feelings for Joseph. As you can imagine, this causes tension in the brothers which turns to hatred and a plot to kill. God steps in using the oldest, Reuben, and spares Joseph’s life. But, it sets him on a path of twists and turns that only God could orchestrate.
BONUS – Theological Thoughts for Mama’s Heart
We read this story in a different storybook a few days ago, too, and both times I have found myself wanting to edit it just a little bit. You may be thinking that I am talking about the part where the brothers try to kill Joseph or maybe where they sell their brother or even the part where they lie to their father. But, nope! The part I most wanted to shield from my girls was that Jacob had a favorite son.
As a mama to four girls I try to be very careful not to let them have any reason to toy with the idea that I might love any of them more than the others. I know how hurtful that could be to my relationship with them. My oldest needs reminding every so often that mommy and daddy’s hearts ability to love grows with each child. Her sisters are not a threat to her being loved.
Yet, it is very clear to Joseph and all of his brother’s that Jacob did have a favorite. Jacob didn’t try to hide it and Joseph even flaunted it. This hurts my heart.
As much as I want to hide parts of the Bible from my girls because I think I know what is best for them, I need to trust God more. He can and will protect my girls. He will honor my trust in sharing the whole story. God will not pick favorites. He will love me and each of my girls.
Reflection
- Do I trust God enough to tell the whole story or I am holding back His Word out of fear?
- Do I believe God loves me as much as He loves others, or am I living as if someone else is His favorite?
Supplies We Used for Playing with Joseph and His Colorful Coat
- Children of God Storybook Bible by Desmond Tutu
- Wooden Peg Dolls
- Crayola Washable Markers
- Art Trays from IKEA
Who Was Playing with Joseph and His Colorful Coat
- Two and a half year old twins
- Two and a half year old friend
- One year old friend on my back
How We Played with Joseph and His Colorful Coat
Storytelling
Engaging your kids in Bible stories is so important for their future faith. The Bible is much more exciting than lots of people give it credit. One story, one Hero, one love, and one final victory. But, it is also full of broken people who have meaningful encounters with the Creator of the universe.
Here’s a storytelling tip to help engage your children: If you are using an illustrated Bible, before you read any of the story, spend some time looking at the picture for the story. Ask your kids what they think is happening. Use the 5 Ws: who, what, when, where, why, and how.
Don’t tell your kids if their predictions are right or wrong, just say something like, “Let’s find out!” Then, when you begin to read they already have a connection to the story.
For more storytelling tips check out some of my other posts like Playing in the Bible: Jonah and the Big Fish and Playing in the Bible: Jesus Walks on Water.
Joseph and His Colorful Coat Peg Doll
To start the story I showed the girls a peg doll of Joseph that I made in about 5 minutes, plus time to dry. I introduced the doll as Joseph and showed them his coat. We talked about how colorful his coat was and identified colors that we saw on his coat.
I told them the coat was important because the coat showed others that his daddy really loved him. His coat was a symbol of how special Joseph was to Jacob. I asked how their daddies (remember we have a friend joining us. I only have one husband 😉) made them feel loved.
However, Joseph was also very special to God and God protected Joseph many times throughout his life. Then, I introduced the story we were going to read as one of the many times God showed his love to Joseph by protecting him and getting him out of trouble.
Counting
Joseph was one of TWELVE boys! Can you even imagine? He also has one sister who isn’t mentioned often, and is not mentioned at all in our storybook.
My twins are learning to count and really enjoy counting. Most of the time our Poppy counts, “2, 4, 5” so any time we can count things is a great learning opportunity and lots of fun for the girls. So, here we counted to twelve.
A great tip is to use 1 finger and point to each brother in the picture as you count. It will help your child’s 1-1 correspondence.
Fashion Show
Joseph had a pretty snazzy coat that he was really proud of and liked to show off. The girls like to show off their clothes with a quick fashion show and lots of twirling.
Bowing Lessons
My oldest has loved to curtsy for a while. Put a dress and ballet shoes on her and she will curtsy to everyone in the room, repeatedly.
Joseph telling his brothers that he had a dream where they would all one day bow down to him was the perfect opportunity for the 2s to learn how to bow. They (carefully) stood up in their chairs for bowing lessons.
Sheep and Goats
My girls always love an animal noise. So almost any time an animal is mentioned we start making their sounds. This story talked Joseph’s brothers tending the sheep and goats. I bet you can guess what happened… baa… baa… baa… meh (or however you spell a goat sound!)… meh… meh!
Getting Emotional
Talking about the emotions of the characters in our stories is really helpful and fun for littles. It is such good practice for their social-emotional skills and empathy. We do it throughout most stories that we read.
This version shares the emotions of several characters in the story. We like to demonstrate what it looks like when we are sad, mad, or happy, etc. I like laughing at the silly faces they make.
Pray
We ended our Bible reading time with the short prayer from our Bible Storybook. I always love the heart behind the prayers Desmond Tutu has written to go with each story.
This story’s prayer was asking God to help us to learn to love our brothers and sisters. Loving our sisters is something we are all working on in our house all the time, and our friend will be welcoming a new brother in a couple of months, so we talk about that, too.
Designing Joseph and His Colorful Coat
Recently, my girls have fallen in love with art. Stickers are art. Coloring pages are art. Do-a-dot markers are art. Everyday they are asking for art, art, art.
Their attention span is short, though. I mean they are two, so that is understandable. I don’t like to spend much more time prepping their art than it takes for them to do art. Most often we also prefer to do process art versus crafts.
For this story, after our prayer, I gave each girl an art tray with a blank peg doll and 1 marker to design their own Joseph doll like we had played with when introducing the story. The girls each had a different color and would practice using manners and kind words as we rotated markers once we were done with the one we were using.
Final Thoughts on Playing with Joseph and His Colorful Coat
While there is so much suffering and pain in Joseph’s life, I love the way God is the hero over and over again. God’s faithfulness, love, and creative problem-solving is on display throughout Joseph’s story. Which part of Joseph’s story can you relate to? I’d love to hear in the comments below.
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Great job! I am going to this with nash and Elliott when i get a chance. Marie