I’m most at home in our mountains where I can literally feel the rhythm of God’s heartbeat in the rushing flow of a river or the swirling breeze through tall pines.
My new friends took me on a journey a few weeks ago.
We came around a bend in the narrow road and it opened up into a meadow overflowing with color and a river running through. It seemed every variety of mountain flower was alive in full bloom. I stood in wonder as the others rushed off to play in the water.
This meadow and river are nestled up in a somewhat remote area where only a small majority of our state’s population will ever have the privilege of seeing it. That didn’t keep God from going all out on the décor. Majestic mountains, flowery meadow, gentle river, swaying trees…He had thought of everything!
I stood there, grasping the awareness that God had anticipated my arrival that afternoon and had pulled out the fine china, so to speak. I’ve never gotten over the love that consumed my soul. He did all of that for me. I truly wept.
As I walked over to the river’s edge, I became aware of the hundreds, if not thousands of river rocks- stones, all around us. Having just experienced God’s overwhelming love for me, those stones became the immeasurable blessings in my life- so many I could never count them all. I reached for a rounded stone and named it “Abundance”. That is the only word that seems to adequately describe what that day had become.
In Joshua 4, after the entire nation had crossed the Jordan River, God told Joshua to hand-pick twelve men to walk out to the middle of the river, heft a stone onto their shoulders, and carry it to where they were going to camp for the night. They took those twelve stones and built a memorial to God’s faithfulness and His promises kept.
“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.” – Joshua 4:5-7 (NIV)
Today, right now, look down at the stones all around you. Turn around and look at the ones behind you- all the times God faithfully kept His promise to you. Reach down and pick up a stone and name it.
In their book, “The Life Giving Home – Creating a Place of Belonging and Becoming”, Sally and Sarah Clarkson describe a family ritual of collecting actual stones that they will then write or draw on. Every year, their family gathers with their memorial stones in hand and they name their blessings to each other. “The stones remind us, when circumstances feel overwhelming, God has been faithful in years past and will be faithful again. Thus our memorial stones affirm both gratitude and faith — it takes us out of our momentary challenges and sets us in the larger narrative of God’s faithful work in the lives of His people.” (pgs. 166, 167)
If you, like the Israelites, need to be reminded of God’s goodness, this is a good day to do some stone-collecting. Some of us are fortunate to be near rivers and can collect actual stones. Some may need to “gather their stones” on paper. You can make a list, draw a picture, fill a bowl with rocks…whatever it takes to see the overwhelming love of your Father.
When the children ask, “What do these stones mean?” – you’ve got a story to tell about a God who keeps His promises.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on Holy Beautiful Life
Featured Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
