When Joseph met his brothers in Egypt..

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt! And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.”

(Genesis 45:04,05)

Many of us find it really hard to forgive! Even when we forgive; forgetting and letting the hurt go seems difficult. We anyhow try our best to show those whom we are forgiving, how much they have hurt us. We want to show how big our forgiveness for them is. It sometimes becomes the bottle of oil which is poured on the dying fire. We forget that now things have changed; not the same person and not the same circumstances. We do not realize that the same person, who hurt us before, is now standing in front of us, humbled and realizing his/her mistakes. We take advantage of the circumstance. Our forgiving becomes meaningless.

Is it hard to forgive and forget? Why? Is there any other greater thing in this world than the joy of forgiving and being forgiven?

Joseph, in the old testament of the bible is one of my favourite characters. Some of the moments he had in his life and the way he went through them taking up the challenges as a human being, is surprising. This God fearing person, who was sold by his own brothers as a slave into Egypt when he was young, and thought that his story ends then and there; going through all the hard times in Egypt, years later stands in front of the same brothers as the father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt. The exact moment which anyone would wish to be in front of those who ignored them once. The chance was in Joseph’s hands to show his brothers how disastrous was their decision to chase him out of their home.

Having all these powers in his hands; this man of God, what did he do?

If you can imagine the scene, carefully described in Genesis 45, it may surprise you. Joseph was just the same as you and I are. His conditions were worse than us, I understand. He had the same feelings and emotions you and I have today; centuries later. I can call him as our senior in the University of Life. As a young boy and throughout his life as a progressing man, one exceptional quality I find in him and the one which made him special amongst many of us is that, Joseph feared God. And this nurtured in him Godliness. 

He met his brothers after many years when they came to Egypt to find food during the famine. Now Joseph was the person in-charge for all these busy work in Egypt which was going on at that time; saving and providing food for Egypt and the neighboring nations. This Joseph, when he met his siblings, he did not want to read aloud the speech he wanted to deliver for ages in front of his brothers. But he humbled himself and told them, “But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.” He forgave, forgot, accepted them and said that it was all for good and according to God’s plan. God had sent him before them so that Joseph will be instrumental in saving the nations from the famine.

Let’s look at ourselves. Are we still holding on to the age old stories and finding it hard to forgive those who did hurt us at anytime in life? Let’s remember that now things have changed and the person whom we are to forgive is not the same person who did hurt us once. There is a change in his/her life. We should learn to forgive them with an embracing heart which will provide the joy of forgiveness. The biggest gift you can ever exchange is forgiving and being forgiven! Let’s learn from people like Joseph and above all from the example Jesus showed us in his life. God always accepts us as we are and He never retrieves what we had done in the past. God forgives and accepts us with gracefulness.

A God fearing heart is nurtured to be the image of God.

Let us also learn to forgive, forget and accept with a graceful heart..

God bless you.