The whole first section of the book of Joshua is exciting, and it is easy to overlook the first few verses in Chapter 4 where Joshua instructs a man from each of the twelve tribes to carry a stone across the Jordan River and place it on the other side.
Here is Joshua’s reasoning:
"We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”
We probably don’t have stories of God literally parting waters for us, but we all have times in our lives when God has made a way for us, or saved us from something, or answered our prayers or revealed something to us.
My question to you is, how do you mark these moments? How do you celebrate them? What is your ‘pile of stones’?
You could write it down. You could tell your children, family or community. You could draw. You could plant.
So when your children, grandchildren or friends ask where God has moved in your life, or even if you find yourself wondering, you can look to your pile of stones and remember.