Meant for Evil, Redeemed by God
February 22, 2026 — Deb Rhodes
We read in scripture about Joseph’s brothers selling him into slavery, meaning him harm. The story that unfolds shows the power of God and how he brought about good from their actions. He had plans for Joseph that resulted in the saving of lives throughout the land, including those same brothers.
Joseph told his brothers:
“You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.” (Genesis 50:20 NLT)
“You planned evil against me; God planned it for good to bring about the present result—the survival of many people.” (Genesis 50:20 CSB)
Likewise, the enemy intends to use the death of children for evil, to harm us, to destroy us, to make us turn away from God. But just like with Joseph, God can use our loss to bring about good. We can’t bring about the physical survival or physical life of a whole population of people like Joseph did, but we can impact the spiritual and emotional survival/life of those in deep grief. We can touch one person at a time and make a difference. We may never start a ministry like Our Hearts Are Home, but we can reach out to newly bereaved parents and walk alongside them, giving them hope and encouragement. We can give them hope that God will be with them in the heartache and in the healing.
I love the story of the starfish. We can be like the little girl in this story.
The Tale of The Starfish
“IT ALL STARTED WHEN…
A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement. She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”
The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied,
“Well, I made a difference for that one!” The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved.” *
In your grief, you might think, “I can’t begin to make a difference”. But rest assured that God has plans for you to do just that. He won’t waste your pain. You might be amazed at how God will use you.
Do you think Joseph had any idea what God had planned for him when he was rejected by his brothers and placed in the pit? He couldn’t know. Likewise, when we are in the pit of despair and grief, we can’t know how God will use us.
When Joseph was in prison, he couldn’t know. We might feel imprisoned by our emotional pain and can’t imagine that God can use us. When Joseph was wrongly accused and felt abandoned, he couldn’t know. We might feel abandoned by God, but we can’t know how he is working in our lives even then. In the end, Joseph was redeemed and exalted. God can and will redeem our pain and use it for good.
The Lord was with Joseph in the pit, the prison, the confusion, the pain, and the rejection, bringing about good from all of it. Likewise, He is with us, and if we lean into Him and allow it, He will bring good from our deepest pain, our most profound loss, our confusion, our questions, even our doubt.
Even during our own pain, when we act to help one “starfish”/bereaved parent, we are bringing glory to God who is faithful. Even in our darkest days, we can rest in His faithfulness.
"Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness." — Lamentations 3:22-23 NIV
"Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen." — Ephesians 3:20-21 NLT
https://www.thestarfishchange.org/starfish-tale
