Remembering

An arrest this week of a war criminal that has been on the run for over twelve years, brought a flood of memories.  The world was a very different place in the 1994.  Whitney was just coming to her fifth birthday.  I was embarking on a new assignment with Citibank.  Everything seemed possible.  Even as I remember the events, personal and in the larger community, I find myself not quite able to grasp it all.  I know there were more events, people, and emotions filling my life than what I can recall.  As I reflect, faces come into focus, pain and joy reappear and the life wisps in my mind begin a renewed birthing process.
It is far too easy to forget.  Memories and experiences of all kinds, big and small, important and trivial, emotional and sterile, find themselves fading quickly.  Even as I try to recall the details, I catch myself in a frustrating loop.  I cannot find the details.  The textures and nuances are missing!  It is as if I am screaming with the mob, “this Moses who got us out here miles from nowhere-who knows what's happened to him!” (Acts 7.40)
As the day emerges, I realize that it will be unique it its own way.  God will be moving and interacting in my life as well as those around me.  Relationships will grow, shifting in the natural rhythm that follows from our choices and actions.  What it will become will be related to how you and I exercise our freedom. 
I do not want to lose sight of what is important.  I want to be aware so I can see, feel, and experience God at work.  I want to be sensitive, so that I can respond to where the Spirit's mentorship is guiding me.  I want to be present, so that I can be with Divinity.
Each hope is real as we embrace God's work in our lives.  Each desire is possible, if we remember how God looks at us.  Every life is special; you and I are part of God's family.