Orange Fish and Imbuing

I’d like to introduce you to a friend of mine.  Actually, he’s a friend of my son, Brehm.  He’s a one-inch long, plastic fish. 

I call him Orange Fish (or O.F. for short). 

We bought him at the Penny Candy Store on Historic Main St. in Centerville for a quarter.  I’m not sure why, but Brehm was very excited about this purchase.  Elijah got one too but I don’t know what happened to his.  Since Elijah puts almost anything in his mouth, I expect that we’ll discover his plastic fish in a future diaper looking haggard and unspeakably filthy from the journey. 

But I digress. 

The focus of this story is Brehm’s O.F.  As I was saying, he loves his fish. 

It came to the lake, it took baths with him, and it even slept on his pillow at night.  So you can imagine what a meaningful moment it was when, as I was packing my suitcase preparing to fly back to Cape Cod, he came into the room and handed me O.F. 

“Here, Daddy.  I want you take Orange Fish with you.”

“Thanks, Buddy!  Um….why?”

“So you remember me.”

“Of course I’d remember you!!  I love you!”

“So….will you take the fish?”

“Oh…..of course.”

He’s a very matter of fact kind of kid. 

So O.F. stowed away in my camera bag.

Sorry Southwest. 

As I was on the first leg of my flight, I had the idea that I would take pictures of O.F. during my trip, and then post them on a blog for my family.  I can’t take full credit for such a “super dad” idea.  I actually stole it from a very heart-warming commercial for insurance…or cameras…or some medication that will cause abdominal distention and retinal detachment but cure your acne.  OK…I have no idea what the commercial was advertising but it was a good commercial.  It made my eyes get all misty in a very manly sort of way. 

Again…I digress. 

The first picture I took was O.F. in the airport.

Then he posed with the gate attendant who had very cool sideburns

(by “very cool” I mean “not cool at all, but very big”). 

Then O.F. got a snapshot with my mom’s license plate to prove to the boys that I was, in fact, in Massachusetts and not gallivanting across Europe or hanging out at Chuck E. Cheese without them.

Everywhere I went, I took a picture of the Orange Fish. 

And then I had another idea.  I would make short films of him doing things. 

Things such as discovering that his family had been turned into little cheesy crackers shaped like fish. 

That one had a horror film soundtrack in the background.

Since then, O.F. has learned to dance and found a girlfriend.  

None of these little projects take very long and they give me something to do when I’m not working.  And every time I do something with O.F., I remember Brehm and my whole family.  And what’s really cool (and by “cool” I mean “totally amazing”) is that, when the boys watch the videos and see the pictures, THEY know that I’m thinking of them.  And they know I love them. 

Usually, the stories that wind up on this blog are events that jump out at me from the events of the week.  

In this case, it was a phrase.  

“Remember me.” 

Brehm gave me something and said, “Remember me.”

That was what stuck in my head, which is good since it would be sadly ironic to “forget” that someone told me to “remember”.  It would be even sadder to forget who it was that said it in the first place.  Imagine if I remembered to make films and take pictures of Orange Fish but forgot that I had a family. 

That would be a tragedy. 

But that’s what I do. 

That’s what we do. 

From the beginning of Genesis, and all throughout the Bible, God invites us to remember Him.

He institutes a Sabbath so we would rest and remember.

I rest and forget. 

He gives festivals, feasts, and holidays so we would rejoice and remember. 

We eat and celebrate and forget. 

He gave me my wife and my friends to love and remember. 

I enjoy fellowship and forget. 

Jesus broke bread and passed a cup and said, “Remember me.” 

We eat the bread and drink from the cup and forget. 

And, in case we missed any of that, He placed us in an amazing world surrounded by countless wonders, all of which shout, “Remember!” 

We stand in the middle of creation and forget. 

I heard a great word the other day.  Imbue.  It means:

            “To inspire or influence thoroughly; pervade; To permeate or saturate; To stain or dye deeply. “

I love that.

I believe that remembrance needs to imbue our lives.  The remembrance of who God is, and what He’s done for us, the remembrance of why we eat and drink and rejoice in the first place.  All of that needs to permeate, saturate all of who we are.  Our lives should be dyed and stained deeply with the remembrance of God.  And that is the beginning of worship.