What Are These Stones?

Our lives, as most any life, has been a series of ups and down.There are days of picture perfect memories, and there are days of curl-in-a-ball and cry.

We haven't mastered this walk through calm and storms gracefully finding dry ground. But we have come to a place where we have enough road traveled to give us a story as we look back and remember from where we came.

In Joshua 4, a stone memorial was built under directions from the Lord for the purpose of a visual testimony to his greatness; "When your children ask you, 'what do these stones mean', you tell them, 'Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground...that all the peoples of the Earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty."

God knows how well any kid loves a good story; a mind blowing, edge of your seat, white knuckled story of helplessness, hopelessness, and a hero. So He gave those parents the ultimate story prompt, a tower of stones plucked from the great river bed, testifying the mightiness of their God.

Now we have story-loving boys of our own. And we have our "stones"; my engagement ring, our wedding rings, Matt's grad school ring, and a leather journal filled with Jordan River sized prayers with dry ground miracles testified alongside.

The Creator of these little men knew the curiosity to learn and discover was woven deep into their beings. That repetition increases understanding, and a good story etches into hearts a treasure of tales to be passed on and told to generations to come.

And that's why I never grow tired of having a little hand slip into mine as he fingers my ring, asking me for the hundredth time what it means. I'll tell him one hundred more times how it signifies my commitment to his Daddy, God's hand on our marriage, and His answering every dead-end and detail in the early days of our being Mr. and Mrs.

And that's why they'll hold Matt's heavy stone ring with awe as he recounts the days we crossed our "Jordan Rivers" on dry ground. That's why we tell them their stories of being gifted to us, how death found life, despair found joy, how fear was defeated, and God was made known. These "stones" serve as our memorial to our Father's ceaseless love with stories to tell for generations to come. 

What stones in your life are a story waiting to be told?