Does Time Heal All Wounds?

As you look back through your life, aren’t you amazed at how the hard times have faded, and you have forgotten what it was like “back then?” I kept a diary for 30-plus years, and when I go back through, I can hardly relate to the emotion I felt during some of the catastrophic episodes I recounted. It actually makes me think I must have been so emotionally immature back then. But maybe it just proves that old saying, “time heals all wounds.”

I think Joseph experienced the same thing. Forgetting may be a God-given coping mechanism. Remember, his brothers hated him; they plotted murder, but instead threw him in a pit, and he ended up getting sold as a slave to an Egyptian officer. It was unlikely he would ever see his family again. But he stayed close to the Lord and God had mercy on him. His master was impressed and put him in charge of his household. But his master’s wife was also impressed, in a different way, and scandal erupted. Joseph’s good fortune ended abruptly as the guy’s wife unjustly accused Joseph of indiscretions, and he ended up in prison for at least two years. If you’re keeping track, first he was up, then he was down (literally), then he was up, and now he was down. Through an act of providence, he got out of prison and became something of a world leader. He was put in charge of feeding people during a world-wide famine. If he kept a diary, I wonder what he would have felt and thought reading back through all that. Did time heal his wounds?

In Egypt, he had a new life. He was given a wife, and they had two children. It’s in the naming of the two kids that we have a glimpse into his mind and his heart. Back then, the naming of children was like a diary entry. He named his first child Manasseh, which meant God hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.  And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. (Gen. 41:51-52)

Very interesting. Time didn’t erase his wounds. God did. God made him forget all his troubles and all his father’s house. His wounds were healed. As for his troubles after he entered Egypt, God caused him to be fruitful in spite of it. He gave God glory, didn’t he? He held no bitterness. He saw God’s hand in it all. He might be the best example of And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Rom. 8:28)

Follow his example. Thank God for delivering you from your past. It doesn’t have to be a part of who you are now. Your past just moved you along to where you are now. See God’s hand in your life right now and give Him glory. There’s more to come.