Those twelve stones which they had taken from the Jordan, Joshua set up at Gilgal. He said to the sons of Israel, “When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, ‘What are these stones?’ then you shall inform your children, saying, ‘Israel crossed this Jordan on dry ground.’”
Joshua 4:20-22, NASB
Traveling to Nicaragua in 2014 was an eye-opening, life-changing experience for me. Getting a front row seat to watch God work in ways that I had never imagined was beyond anything I had ever experienced. I knew I would never be the same.
Fast forward a few weeks and months. Life quickly resumed a pattern of normalcy. Meals had to be made and sibling squabbles needed a referee. The images of poverty and God stories, once in the forefront of my mind, had been replaced with meal planning and story time. Consumed with my own life, I had forgotten.
The nation of Israel struggled with memory loss as well. As a nation, they had witnessed miracle after miracle. They had seen manna fall from heaven, been guided by a pillar of cloud during the day and fire at night, and had walked through parted waters on dry land. Yet all too soon they would forget God’s provisions.
After crossing the Jordan, the Lord commanded a man from each of the twelve tribes to go back to the middle of the dry river bed and take a stone and build an altar, or memorial, to Israel forever. For generations, when asked what those stones meant, they would remember the Lord’s provision and the deliverance of their nation.
Like Israel, we are prone to forget God’s provisions in our lives, but the importance and purpose of remembering hasn’t changed.
God has delivered each and every one of us from something. If we have placed our faith in Christ, we have been delivered from eternal condemnation and separation from Him. Maybe you’ve been delivered from financial ruin, addiction, or a broken marriage?
Regardless of how He has worked in our lives, it’s important to remember and it’s important to share it with others for God’s glory. Through the remembrance and sharing of our God stories, others are pointed to Christ, a legacy of faith is left for our children, and our own faith is strengthened when our lives take unexpected twists and turns.
How can you remember today?
Remembering,
Traci