Forgotten

What would you do if you were afraid that you and your life's story would be totally forgotten? Joseph faced that possibility as he languished in prison in Egypt. The good news is that God didn't forget him. The better news is that God doesn't forget us, either!

Just when you think it can’t get any worse, somehow it does. That’s what Joseph must have thought as he languished in Pharaoh’s prison. First he was sold into slavery by his own brothers (Genesis 37); then he was unjustly accused of rape and thrown into prison (Genesis 39). How could it possibly get any worse? It got worse when everybody forgot that he existed (Genesis 40). Even though the prison warden trusted him and gave him responsibility; even though Joseph was able to interpret the dreams of two other men who were in prison with him; even though Joseph pleaded with Pharaoh’s cupbearer to put in a good word for him after the cupbearer was released from prison; everybody forgot about him. Joseph might as well have been dead.

What is it like to be forgotten? Imagine that you disappeared off the face of the earth with no one to remember you. Your name wouldn’t ring a bell with anyone who heard it. “Who?” people would say. “Never heard of him!” And when you are forgotten, your story is forgotten, too. Joseph wanted to tell his story. “I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews,” he told the cupbearer. “I have done nothing to deserve being put in a dungeon.” (Genesis 40:15) But that story meant nothing to the cupbearer; and he forgot about it just as soon as Pharaoh said, “Come on back!” Now, our names are common. There are lots of Josephs in the world, just like there are lots of Lynns and Eds and Marys and Bobs; but our stories are unique. No one else in the world has your particular story. In fact, no one else in history has ever had your particular story! When you are forgotten, that story is forgotten, too. Joseph didn’t want his story to die in prison with him.

Now, some people’s stories are in no danger of being forgotten. Right now, for example, I am reading a book titled The Bishop’s Boys (Tom Crouch, 1989, W. W. Norton & Company, New York) about Wilbur and Orville Wright. They changed the world by figuring out how powered flight was possible. Their stories will be told for centuries. But most of us aren’t like the Wright Brothers. Nobody is going to write books about our stories; and they run the real risk of being forgotten. That even applies to cherished family stories. My mother used to tell about one of her ancestors who left Europe with her grandfather when she was only a teenager. She traveled to the United States on a sailing ship that was becalmed somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico, and narrowly escaped starvation. I wish that I had written that story down while my mother was still alive, because I no longer even remember which ancestor she was! I would love to reclaim that story; and only time will tell if I’m able to do that. And I’m not the only one who is interested in family stories. Just look at how popular genealogy is right now. Not a day goes by without my seeing a TV ad for “23 and Me,” a company that offers to reveal your ethnic background on the basis of your DNA. We don’t want to lose our stories; because our stories tell us who we are.

But the sad reality is that many stories are lost forever; and it’s not only family stories that get lost. Think of the millions of people today who have had powerful experiences (both good and bad); but we never hear about them. Middle Eastern refugees could tell us stories of fleeing a war zone with nothing but the clothes on their backs. Some could even tell us what it’s like to watch family members die of starvation or exposure before they could reach safety. Many people who live in the horn of Africa – in Somalia, Ethiopia, or Kenya – could tell us stories of how they have survived the recent drought, as their livestock died and their food supply dwindled. And many prisoners in our own country could tell stories of being unjustly imprisoned – like Joseph – by a system that was designed to protect them. Have your heard any of those stories? Probably. Do you remember them? Probably not. The unhappy reality is that many of the stories that need to be told simply die in silence, or are forgotten when the next tragedy hits the front page of the paper. And all that is very bad news.

But there is good news here, too. Let’s go back to Joseph’s story for a moment. I might have ended this morning’s scripture reading with the last verse of chapter 40 of Genesis, which goes like this: “The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph. He forgot him.” But I didn’t end there. Instead, I ended with the first verse of chapter 41: “When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream…” Maybe you already know what that dream was. Pharaoh dreamed about seven fat cows that came up out of the Nile River, and about seven thin, ugly cows that appeared later and ate up the seven fat cows. When none of Pharaoh’s magicians could interpret that dream, the cupbearer suddenly remembered Joseph. “Oh, yeah,” he said, “there was a guy in prison who interpreted a dream for me once; and he got it right! You should go get him. I’ll bet that he could tell you what your dream means.” The rest of the story is a testimony to God’s power to redeem even hopeless situations. Joseph did indeed interpret Pharaoh’s dream: that seven years of plenty would be followed by seven years of famine. Pharaoh was so impressed that he put Joseph in charge of storing and distributing grain for the whole country (Genesis 41).

Our stories are not always forgotten. That’s good news, indeed. But the best news is that God never forgets any of us. The Scriptures remind us again and again that God remembers his people! In Exodus, we read that after Joseph died, and the new Pharaoh threw all the Hebrews into slavery, God heard their cries, remembered his promise to Abraham and led them out of slavery. Isaiah tells us that after Israel was carried off into exile in Babylon, God remembered his people and brought them back to their homeland. And we all know Luke’s story of the thief who hung on the cross next to Jesus. When he pleaded, “Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” Jesus replied “I’ve already got that covered!”

God never forgets anyone or their story; God knows exactly what has happened to us; and God understands how our experiences have shaped us into what we are, for better or for worse. We may never know the people around us or hear their stories; we may forget the stories of our ancestors; and if our minds grow hazy, we may even forget our own stories; but in God’s memory, none of those things are forgotten. God always remembers. Thanks be to God!