When I travel, even if it's to a neighboring state, I often times meet people who sometimes make a point to say, "Remember me!" in parting. Thinking back to school yearbooks, I think of how just about everyone would write some thing like, "You better not forget me!" I spent 2 months in Eastern Europe once with a group of teenage orphaned girls who made me short videos on my digital camera so that I would never forget them. I stood humbly in an AIDS hospice in Congo, Africa with men and women dying all around me and begging me not to forget them. What is it about needing to feel remembered?

I know Mother's Day is on it's way, but I've had Father's Day on the brain lately. Don't worry; I won't forget my lovely mom this Sunday. It's just that, I think of Father's Day often actually, because a couple years ago, I heard the most powerful sermon I've ever heard on Father's Day.

I was living in Boston at the time and had just finished my final classes of graduate school. I had been driving to south Boston on Sunday morning's to attend a very poor African-American Presbyterian Church in Roxbury. Dr. Rev. Hamilton gave a humbling message that Sunday morning that carried me from tears of confession to tears of joy in the Lord.

He began his powerful sermon with a look inside the Garden of Eden on that sad day when sin into the world and Adam and Eve were both seperated from God. Dr. Rev. Hamilton explained that they had been dismembered from the Garden that day. The ultimate result: we have all been dismembered from the Garden and from the physical presence of God.

He then talked about how fathers (and all of us) have continued in our sin generation after generation by not sharing our stories, both the beautiful and the ugly parts, with those around us. Thus, we haven't told the stories of the transforming power of God, our Father, in our lives.

From the Garden of Eden we went straight to the cross. Dr. Rev. Hamilton painted the picture of Jesus nailed to the cross with the two thieves on either side of him so vividly, it felt like we were there. As he talked about the love of Jesus that had put him on that cross, tears made their way down my face. The story doesn't stop there. Dr. Rev. Hamilton took us to the conversation Jesus had with one of the thieves. In Luke 23:42,43 their conversation went like this, '"Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.'"

In that moment, Jesus, hanging on a cross and breathing in his last gasps of air, he remembers and invites this thief back into the presence of God, the Father. For those of us who have a relationship with God, we know we were once dismembered and are now remembered.

I've been hiking a lot lately. Big Bear mountain has been a hot spot. Recently I stood at the top of a mountain side, 4 miles up and looked down into a vast valley below. Every rock there had a different shape and color. Every tree a different number of branches and leaves. Every butterfly that flew around my head a different design of wings. Every song of the birds in the trees a different tune. God is so creative! The thing that humbles me the most and leaves me absolutely speechless is the idea that in the midst of how awesome God's creation is, I too, am his creation and he has remembered me.

On top of the mountain that day, I felt remembered. I stood high on a rock and worshiped my creator by remembering those who I have been privileged to meet along my life's path.