These Stones Are To Be A Memorial

Psalm 78: 1-4

“O my people, listen to my instructions.  Open your ears to what I am saying, for I will speak to you in a parable.  I will teach you hidden lessons from our past—stories we have heard and known, stories our ancestors handed down to us.  We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders.”

I have been thinking a lot about my daughter and what I am doing as a father to help her develop her own personal relationship with God.  What message am I conveying in my everyday interactions?  Are my actions a reflection of my relationship with God and do they match what I say?  Just as important, how well does she know the story of what God has done in my life?

When the Israelites were ready to take possession of the Promised Land they had to cross the Jordan River.  As a demonstration of God’s strength and favor, He parted the waters before them for the second time and allowed them to cross over into the place he had prepared for them.  To make sure future generations remembered this miraculous event, he had them take stones from the middle of the river and stack them on the edge of the bank.

Joshua 4:5-7

“Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan.  Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?  tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

We tend to be a lot like the Israelites…forgetful.  It only took days for them to revert to old ways of thinking and disregard the miracles they had just witnessed.  This was a pattern they repeated over and over again.

I can’t even begin to count the number of times God did something for me or spoke to me in a powerful way that I thought I would never forget.  Now, many of those experiences are only a distant, vague memory.  How unfortunate that I did not pass on that experience or write it down before it slid to the back of my mind.

What God does in our lives is vital to the faith of our children and future generations.  What are we sharing with them?  What miracles of salvation, providence, healing, restoration, deliverance and understanding do we need to tell them before they are washed away by life?

What “Stones” do you carry that testify of God?  Take some time this week to begin to write them down so your children, grandchildren and those around you can be strengthened by your declaration of God’s faithfulness.