It is not unusual to see “TW” (trigger warning) on a syllabus or on social media to alert readers that the content may include references to issues, ideas, or stories that could trigger trauma.

Joseph’s family got no such warning when they found themselves standing in front of the brother whom they had sold into slavery. Joseph got no such warning when his family arrived in Egypt, convinced that there was no possibility that he would be alive. He even tested them in their stated purpose to find relief from the famine.

Eventually the trigger of being reunited with his family and his oppressors sets off the trauma physically. Joseph weeps so loudly people cannot help but notice, and his brothers are silent in their terror. Trauma changes us not only spiritually but physically, affecting our thoughts, feelings, and bodies. Living out our faith, even in times of deep distress, must include space and grace for a physical response.

But what happens next is not quite what we have come to expect from the TWs of today. Instead of silence, resistance, or separating into opposite “sides,” there is love, forgiveness, understanding, reconciliation, healing, and restoration. There is space for the pain of trauma to be acknowledged in a visceral way, and there is space for Joseph to name the trauma and to name his process of healing in front of his family.

While Western methods of therapy and counseling are most often focused on individual healing, this example pushes us to consider how God can bring about the healing of communities.