Little reminders

“Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 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.”

Like everyone else, I get a real nostalgia kick for anything I see that reminds me of my childhood. I grew up in the 90s, so we are talking the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that I used to watch. The Sunny Delight I would drink. The Pogs I used to collect. The Spice Girls album I used to listen to. We all have those (sometimes shameful) things that trigger memories within us. They trigger some emotional connection to the past, which can leave us longing to recapture something behind us or something of the way life used to be.

In Joshua 4 the Israelites have just seen God move in an amazing way. They had crossed the river that should have ended their path into the promised land. Now they’ve come to this moment where God commands them to setup these memorial stones to remind them of this moment. It’s great to be reminded of moments where God moved in our lives. But this story in Joshua 4 isn’t about creating nostalgia. The stones weren’t just meant to inspire sentiment from future generations.  The stones were a reminder of the past, but it was more than looking back through rose tinted glasses . These stones weren’t just about what God did, they were about who God is. 

God is the one who makes a way, he is the one who keeps his promise, he is the one who leads his people in love and purpose… and he’s never stopped being that God!!! 

See these 12 little reminders weren’t just about remembering the past, they were a reminder of who God still is.

It’s easy to see Gods hand on our life retrospectively. We see how he made a path for us through situations that seemed impossible. And yet how often do we look ahead of ourselves and see no way forward.

Perhaps we need to create little reminders in our life, just like Joshua and the Israelites did, to remind us of powerful moments we’ve experienced with God. Not so that we can look back at them with nostalgia filled hearts, longing to return to a place we’ve been, but so that we are reminded of who God is. 

We look back to those moments where God made a way, not to go back, but to reveal the God who always makes a way forward.