Genesis 42

A Storehouse Of Pictures

And Joseph remembered. Genesis 42:9.

There once lived in Edinburgh a little boy about six years old who was a great deal with his mother because he was not strong enough to go to the infant school. They were plain, homely people.

One day, a very thin severe-looking woman came to visit them; and Jim, sitting on a little stool, kept looking up at her, for he thought he had never seen ‘ anyone sit up so straight on a chair. After a little, he ventured a question: “Are you lonely?” The woman just laughed. Jim persisted, “Do you live alone?... Have you a sister?”... Have you a husband?” The idea of loneliness in old age had entered Jim's mind, and I believe he went about thinking of this woman all day. He was not old enough to know of the wonderful possession she had. She did not need to be lonely. She owned a palace of her very own. She had pictures of all kinds of childhood, schooldays, young womanhood, and of ever so many people whom she used to know. Perhaps she had pictures of green fields too, and could even smell their beautiful wild-flowers. Then she could hear an old song if she wanted to

Music when soft voices die

Vibrates in the memory.

I know that you have already guessed that I speak of the things we can remember of Memory. I wish you boys and girls could understand what a marvelous thing memory is, and how good God is in letting us have it. It is a secret palace, open only to the person who owns it.

Now, while Joseph was in the palace of Pharaoh he had his secret palace too; in it were the pictures of his father and his brothers, of the fields of Hebron, of Shechem, and of Dothan. He entered his secret palace often, for those pictures meant a great deal to him in the land of Egypt. I believe some of them would make him feel rather sad, particularly those in which he himself appeared; for when he was a boy Joseph was inclined to forget that there were other people in the world besides himself.

One day, during the famine, his three brothers came to Egypt to buy corn. Joseph recognized them at once, but they did not know him. Even while he was speaking to them, the real Joseph was away among his pictures of Hebron and Dothan. Strange as it may seem, the sight of them stirred feelings of love in his heart, love even to those brothers who had treated him so unkindly. And the love made him act in a very strange sort of way. He spoke roughly to the men, and accused them of being spies. But as soon as their backs were turned he went and wept just like a child.

Boys and girls, you have a collection of pictures already; and every day you add to it. Your memory is a wonderful storehouse of pictures, and what these are depends on how you live. One day you say a cruel thing to some one and forget it. But at night or it may be months after all the circumstances appear as a picture. How it hurts to look at it! A famous writer has said, “Memory is the only paradise from which we cannot be driven.” But it is not always a paradise. Some people would give all they possess to be able to forget.

How, then, are we to have pictures that make us happy? We can try to be kind and thoughtful and gentle to those about us, and then we shall have a storehouse of happy memories. So ask God to fill you with the spirit of Jesus, the spirit of love. He will help you to live a life that will have only beautiful memories.