Who Was That Masked Man?

Yesterday L and I were at the Alco store in Anthony. We were checking out and in front of us was this man. He turns around and says, "Hello, MBer's." I answer first and say, "Hi." I wanted to be friendly back.

Then the man continues to talk about L and his job. My mind is thinking "Who is this?" L hestitates to answers. He is silently thinking the same question. Then L answers back like he knows this guy well. (He's faking it). This guy asks how many years L has been with his company. I am still trying to think who this person is because apparently he knows us. Then he adds, "You have two kids to put through college." This person knows us WELL.

As we leave I lean over to L and say, "Who was that guy?" L is pondering this too and whispers, "I don't know." I look over my shoulder and see someone I DO know from church and say, "Well there is K, one of our trustees, I know him."

L watches this other guy as he goes out to his truck. Then it dawns on him who that person was. Some guy who is from H town owning a historic house. We hadn't seen him in a few years, even though we live like a block or two away.

I had the same incident happen to me a couple years back at Crystal Springs. We were at a funeral and someone knew me. I was like, "and you are?" She was a cousin to HB who died and I had worked with her in Wichita. How embarrassing! I had to ask who she was and where I knew her from. Well, it had been over 15 years ago since I quit working at "the company."

How is it that some people remember you but you can't seem to remember them? Then there are times when you know who they are and they have "no clue as to who YOU are." Or then you explain who you are and they want nothing to do with you. They think that you are the same person as you were when you were a kid. Or think you were some kind of nerdy person, that they wouldn't dare associate with then or now.

About a year ago, I was at this big wedding of one of our church members. I knew the uncle of the guy getting married. I remembered how his uncle looked when I was 19-20. I looked around for him in the crowd. I didn't see him. He had to be there as his daughter did special music for the wedding. Of course this guy was supposed to look like he did 32 years ago. Even if I would have seen him, there was no way he would have remembered me.

Just recently I caught up with Susan and Denis from my college days and I hadn't seen them in 30 years. Yet, we all looked the same and hadn't changed that much. I would have known them anywhere.

Isn't it too bad that we can't take a memory drug for incidents like these? We could remember EVERY PERSON that we have ran into in the course of our lifetime. Then, of course, there are the people you want to forget, the ones who treated you bad.

If you think about it, God remembers everyone good and bad. He knows his sheep by name and by sight. He knows who is missing in the group and searches for the lost sheep.

God is great, all the time!