Maybe we’re looking at “dealing with” things from the past and “forgetting the past” in the wrong way. We view current events through the lens of the past…we view people through that lens of the past. How do we get over it…deal with it? The truth is, we can’t forget! We need to reframe the significance of the painful past by putting it in the context of God. Yes, people betray us and abandon us. God never leaves us. Yes, bad things happen at the hands of others. God protects us. God uses terrible events and turns them for good. How does it happen? God makes us fruitful in the land of our affliction. We want deliverance from our land of affliction, but God doesn’t always promise that. But He does promise our suffering will produce fruit. And we can exchange beauty for ashes.
Dysfunction. Betrayal. Heartbreak. These are some of words describing the life of Joseph. But his story is our story, too. In a striking parallel to the Gospel, where God redeems and restores broken and dysfunctional sinners and makes us into a family.
