«And to Joseph were born two sons … whom Asenath bore to him. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: ‘For God» has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house’ (Genesis 41:50, 51).
I RECENTLY READ an anonymous sentence that says: «The past gives us lights with which we are to illuminate our present.» It seemed brilliant to one because, in effect, the events of the past play a fundamental role in our way of living here and now. Pleasant memories, as well as those that have left scars, influence our way of understanding the present.
Just like films that are projected before our eyes, the memories of the past appear before us. Some are loaded with happiness (the pleasant memories); others, perhaps, with pain (those that leave scars). We learn great lessons of life from all of them. Perhaps you are wondering: can the memory of a bad experience illuminate my present? Yes, it can, if you manage to understand what lesson it brings to your life, what negative influences God perhaps revealed to you through it, and what mistakes you will not repeat so you do not go through the same thing again. Those bad memories make you more sensitive, more mature, more able to understand the pain of others, and more dependent on God. For Joseph, those memories of the past were not easy to assimilate: his brothers had betrayed him, he had lost his freedom in Egypt, he had been accused unjustly, and he had ended up in jail but in time, God allowed him to «forget» (in the sense of «overcome,» obviously, since he never forgot) so much pain. In recognition of that infinite power of God to help us remember without hatred or resentment, Joseph gave his son the name «Manasseh,» which literally means «causing to forget.»
«This name Joseph gave his first-born in gratitude that God had caused him to forget his former state of servitude and the intense longing he had felt for his father’s home. He was grateful that God had built him a home, though it be in the land of his exile. Erstwhile misery could not embitter his present state of happiness, for adversity had been transformed into prosperity» (SDA Bible Commentary, vol. 1, p. 449).
Remembering is living again and forgetting is remembering without suffering again. When you stop feeling pain because of what happened, you are healed. It does not mean that you erase the situations of the past completely from your mind, but that you have learned lessons of life that you apply now.