April 12 – “Ah, memory”

Remember what it is like to have something right on the tip of your tongue?  It happens to me all the time.  Especially at church when I am greeting people before we start worship service.  I will definitely recognize someone.  I know without a doubt that they have been there before.  I might even recall some obscure fact about them – maybe where they come from or that they have children or that they usually stay at the state park.  But can I ever remember a name?  No.  Try as I might, even as I talk to them, it just won't come to mind.  And sometimes it's so close that I can taste it.  I hope people are patient with me when I ask them what their name is … again.    Before Chris started working in the nursery most Sundays I could check with her to see if she met the same people.  She has an amazing memory for names.  I have a prayer list in the front of my Bible where I write down the names of people that I meet so I can pray for them (and, to be honest, remember them later).  I will even write some distinguishing characteristic or some fun fact that I learned.  This technique has proven invaluable over the years, but sometimes it fails me as well.  Most often because of the next problem.   See, that would be bad enough, but it gets worse.  I can meet someone new.  I can have a great conversation with them and learn some exciting things about their life.  I can use their name several times as we talk.  And by the time I get to my Bible or move on to the next person, I already can't remember their name.  I haven't thought about it in awhile, but maybe I can try the method that Visual Verses is based on.  The idea is to picture the person you are talking to in some kind of crazy situation that uses their name in a memory jog kind of way.  Then every time you see them you will remember the silly picture and be able to figure out their name.  I guess that would work fine, especially for names like Waterman (super hero with a big faucet on his chest) or Phillips (a gas pump with a Phillips 66 logo on it) or Bollman (bowling ball rolling down an alley) or Goodgame (the little kids shaking hands after a ball game) or Turnham (a cook flipping a ham with a spatula).  It gets trickier with names like Geswender (a Jeopardy contestant guessing that a turbine is called a "wind-er") or Dicecco (on a test, question D., check the answer "O").  Hey, this is getting fun.  So who will I meet Sunday?    Psalms 139:1-4 says, "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me.  You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.  You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.  Before a word is on my tongue you know it completely, O Lord."   Father, thank you for remembering me … and still loving me.  Amen.