Forget-Me-Not Day

Today is National Forget-Me-Not Day. No, I am not making that up. According to nationaldaycalendar.com this is a day to reconnect. Since there is no history of who started this national day or why, I've created my own backstory.

I imagine a woman was planning out the coming holidays (because most of us like a good plan). She mentioned to her husband that she can't believe Thanksgiving is only a couple of weeks away. She asks him, "Are we supposed to spend dinner at your grandma's house again this year?"

He responds, "How would I know? I haven't talked to my grandma since last Thanksgiving."

A cold pit of fear forms in the stomach of the wife as she pictures steely glares from the grandma across the dinner table. In a blind panic she hands him the phone and commands, "Call her right now! She'll find some way to blame me . . . I know it! And while you're at it, get in touch with your mom and sister to figure out what the plan is for Christmas. They're not coming here, right?!"

And bam! The birth of Forget-Me-Not Day.

From all appearances, we are a people connected to one another . . . through one social media platform or another. But how connected are we really? We may post or tweet every 5 minutes (or less) but is it in an effort to connect with friends or just to be seen and heard? Is it a fear of living a life of insignificance that drives us to share mundane details of our lives with the internet universe? Or is it that we lack real points of connection and crave it like our very lives depend on it? . . . Because they do.

This verse is smushed in the middle of a discussion about the gifts God has given each of us to share with the Body of Christ (an abstract concept meaning all believers). Removing a verse from its context is a dangerous thing. We can finagle any verse into meaning whatever suits our fancy at the time. "Really love them." Sure, I do that. I smile at people in the grocery store. I let elderly women on the elevator before me. However, if we look at the context of this verse, these circumstances don't fit the meaning. The author is telling us to dig down deep into each other's lives. We are to use our gifts to bless them and accept the blessing of their gifts in our own lives. Waving to my neighbor from my car as I drove by is just pretending to love them. As followers of Christ, we're called to really love others.

During this fast-approaching holiday season it's the perfect time to stop pretending. Let's be intentional about reconnecting with family and friends and creating new connections with people we've been keeping at arm's length.

Bonus: you won't have to worry about receiving the death stare from Great Aunt Betsy across the dinner table during Thanksgiving if you make the effort to reconnect with her today.

Who will you reconnect with on this National Forget-Me-Not Day?