I've always loved the idea of "memory stones". We have objects in our home that have been purchased to mark the remembrance of a move from God. The "bell" that hangs on our wall in the kitchen reminds me of how the Lord brought me physical healing from a cancer journey. A wall-plaque that reads "live loving" is a constant reminder of my mom, a lady who loved living, and lived loving, constantly bringing Christ into every conversation. A chocolate bar wrapper in an "Answered Prayer Jar" signifies a time when the Lord showed Himself as a very personal God to our son as a child. Each item causes my heart and mind to remember the goodness of God.
Joshua instructs one member from each of the tribes of Israel to go into the Jordan and retrieve a stone. What caught my attention is where they had to find the stone. It wasn't on the water's edge or close to the shoreline where it's safe. They had to obtain the rock from the middle of the riverbed.
The middle. The half-way point. You've come midway but there's an equal distance ahead that still needs to be travelled. It's from this place of still trusting God for rescue, while not experiencing full victory yet, that God instructs stones to be chosen. It's smack dab in the center of uncertainty, while distant waves threaten, and the sound of wind swirls viciously that the Lord says remember this moment. The middle is where you are standing on the ground of your impossibility and God's possibility.
We'd prefer to pick up our stone on the water's edge. We don't want to traverse the deepest part of any journey. If we could only live life close to the banks of the Jordan. God often calls us out into the deep, and it's there that we experience His hand and grow in trust. It's in the depths that we encounter the Lord in new and glorious ways. It's when we don't know with certainty the outcome before us that our faith increases as we look to Him. The middle is where we remember God's work in our lives the most. The middle becomes the fertile soil for flourishing faith.
Like a river, our lives ebb and flow, and the middle can also represent the everyday, ordinary, day-to-day living. It's not high. It's not low. It's in these middle moments where we can also forget the Lord. It's here in the regular routine of everyday that we also need to gather stones and plant our feet on the promises of God's word.
A quick caution regarding these memorials. They are not to be monuments of completion, but footprints that say, "This is where I was when God moved me again." The memorial is an altar, the footprint is an adventure. One marks history, the other is the ongoing writing of "His story" across our lives. We need the "memory stones", but we also need to feel the fresh dirt rising beneath our sandals.
Much of life is lived in middle moments. What represents your twelve stones today? How can you intentionally take note of the activity of God right now in the middle of your situation? Not only will these "stones" spur your heart to remember the Lord's presence with you, but they are great conversation starters, giving opportunity to share God-stories with all who comment on them. Middles can be weary, but God is also the in-between and beauty can be found in the now and not-yet. Pick up one stone and let it mark the Lord's presence with you in the middle of your Jordan.
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