Forget Me Not

Photo from the internet

I admit it, I was in love. At least, about as in love as I had ever been to that point. He was the Boys' Director at the summer camp where I worked. Between his trumpet skills and the fact that he was a spiritual leader for all of us, he made my heart go pitter-pat. And I thought there were good evidences he liked me back. At least, all the signs were there.

The problem was that I was planning to leave for Finland at the end of that summer to work in a school for a year. Being a missionary kid who'd had a lot of practice at staying in touch with people over long distances, I didn't for a minute think that my being away for a year was an insurmountable obstacle to my presence in his world. There were letters, after all. And I could leave a tangible reminder.

Since I was working in the craft room, I made a little plaque for him with a couple of trumpets on it, and put the Bible verse, "Praise Him with the sound of trumpets," on it. Without saying who it was from, I slipped it into his mailbox in the cafeteria. He would figure out where it came from, I was sure, and it would be a reminder to him during the year ahead, during which I hoped to hear from him. I wanted him to remember me ... fondly.

As an aside, my perceptions of this young man were quite skewed, apparently, as he never wrote, and he started dating my good friend a month after I left. But that's an old story and not particularly relevant to my musings here. I just realized you'd want to know.

We all want people to remember us. There's something about being in someone's memory, whether we are gone for a short time or forever, that validates our meaning in their lives. We want our short journey through another person's consciousness in this world to be important and lasting. When someone who is valuable to us forgets us, we feel devalued, wiped out as it were.

November 10 is "Forget Me Not Day." It is probably the invention of some greeting card company. But they hit on something tender in all our hearts. There are people we never forget, and there are people we want to never forget us. Today might be a good day to get in touch with a few of those.

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget I will not forget you! See? I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.  --God