Forgotten
Genesis 40:23 Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgat him.
I recently registered on this web site that puts you in a group with other classmates from your high school, allowing you to make contact and find out what’s been going on in the last umpteen years of their life. It’s amazing how many of those people, from that whole period of life of grade school through 12th grade, have become a memory that is a bit hard to recall. So many of the kids that had been a part of every day classes, band, sports, and other groups require a picture, a name, or even a description in order for their memory to be brought back into focus.
Since then, there have been other periods of time in which relationships were developed in different parts of the country and even the world that were very valuable and precious while we were in contact, but once proximity to those people has been lost, their memory has also been lost somewhat. While we were associating on a regular basis, they were a very integral part of life and the development that was taking place in me, but once another community became home and another goal and focus was set before me, there was a loss of those ties that had been such a valuable and even essential part of previous existence. In many instances, this has been somewhat disheartening, when an investment of years of passion and caring into relationships has been apparently lost as there is very little opportunity for further contact to be made and weakening bonds to be renewed. Memories of those people fade into the distance and with them the valuable resource that they have been and potentially could still be.
While there may be this perception of loss along with memory in our experience of life, with God there is no investment into a relationship that is removed from His resource of blessing that may just take a name, a picture, or a description for there to be a restored flow of communication and valuable fellowship. He can bring to our remembrance those to whom we may not spoken in many years and prompt our hearts to pray a prayer, send a note or gift of encouragement, and possibly provide for much needed deliverance. It may appear that we’ve become far removed from those that have blessed us so much in the past and those to whom we’ve also provided a resource of blessing. The separation may seem to be too great and far removed from being productive, but God will never lose track of any relationship that has been a part of His plan and purpose for our life, and a prayer lifted to Him and an ear listening to His voice will bring the restoration of much needed relationships in the time of His appointment to fill a need in us and in them. They may have forgotten us and we may have forgotten them, but God has forgotten none of us and by His spirit He’ll restore, renew, deliver and encouragement in His loving provision. Joseph certainly felt forgotten and even misused, but with God there is never a misplaced relationship investment and at the right time the memory was brought to mind and favor imparted.
There is a memory of us in the minds of those we’ve touched and their memory is there in our minds, whether in the front or buried in the back somewhere. Each touch and every giving of the heart is useful in the hands of the One that will use it for His blessing and His purpose. There is never a loss of heart investment in Him, just a need to trust Him to keep all those things that concern us.
