Twice he stopped, counted his parcels, searched his pockets, but finally decided he had everything with him. Yet the feeling persisted.
When he reached home his daughter ran out, stopped short, and cried:
"Daddy, where's Mommy?"
What do you think is the most powerful, yet fragile part of you? I am sure there are many answers to that question. But what I am looking for is your memory. When it is good you get to celebrate that anniversary of a couple who is special in your life. You get to spend that awesome time at the bonfire. You get to have lunch with a person you helped through a tough time but don’t get to see that often. When it’s bad, you miss out on the recital. A meeting is held without you. And worst of all, you forget an item on the wife’s grocery list.
It’s hurts to be forgotten. We have all experienced it at one time or another. We know the pain of expecting someone to remember — to show up, call, text, email, ask, make time — and coming up empty and alone. If they really cared, they would’ve remembered, right?
When I find myself is certain situations, my practice is to try to find someone in the Bible who can relate. For those who feel forgotten, I don’t think you need to look any further than Joseph, the favorite son of Jacob and eventual ruler of Egypt. Joseph was forgotten when he probably needed remembered the most. He was sold into slavery by his brothers, jailed for something he didn’t do because of Potipher’s wife. During this time Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker are arrested and jailed. Both were suspected of crimes against Pharaoh himself and are facing almost certain death. They know no one crosses the most powerful person in Egypt and lives to tell about it. (By the way, you can read all about this in Genesis 40).
The two men had nightmares one night. One was given great news, the other bad news. Joseph told the cupbearer he would once again be Pharaoh’s cupbearer, in fact this would take place in just 3 days. In exchange for this amazing news, he makes one request: Please remember me before Pharaoh. One sentence from you might finally free me. He then turns to the baker and tells him in the same 3 days, he would die.
Can you guess what happened? Exactly what Joseph had predicted.
But there is one verse in this story that is one of the saddest verses, I think, in scripture. “Yet the cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him” (40:23). He wasn’t scared of what Pharaoh might do or say if he mentioned Joseph’s name, he flat out forgot him!
“But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison” (39:21). If God was so concerned about making Joseph popular in the prison, we know he didn’t check out now.
This becomes clear in the next chapter when Pharaoh has a dream. He asks all the wise men in Egypt, and none of them can interpret. Finally, the cupbearer remembers Joseph and tells Pharaoh what happened.
Pharaoh calls Joseph, God speaks to Joseph, he rightly interprets Pharaoh’s dream, and he saves Egypt from famine and ruin. So Pharaoh puts Joseph in charge of all of Egypt, second in command.
So what do we learn from this? When you feel forgotten, abandoned, beat down, alone, know that God has never forgotten you.
You will experience all kinds of hard things in this life. You might be forgotten or betrayed by the people you love most, but understand this, absolutely nothing that can happen to you on this earth can deny what God has said about you once and for all because of Jesus’s life, death on the cross, and resurrection from the dead. God never forgets you. God created you, he paid for your sins and you are HIS! Man will forget. Man will disappoint. Man will abandon you when things get tough. Man will slander and gossip. Man will be human. But God will never forget disappoint, abandon or slander. God will be divine giving His divine forgiveness, mercy, grace and love. Be comforted by these promises.
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