I want to start this post with a passage of Scripture from Joshua 4. But I will set up some context. Joshua had taken over leadership of Israel after the death of Moses. The Israelites came to the Jordan River and the river stopped following for them to cross (Joshua 3). The Jordan didn’t stand up on end like the Red Sea did when they left Egypt, but God still gave them a dry path to walk on. This had to have been a great reminder for them. So after they crossed, Joshua chose 12 men and told them to do something:
“‘So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. He told them, ‘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.’”- Joshua 4:4-7 NLT
The 12 stone memorial was a way for what God had done for Israel to always be spoken about. I mean, if I saw a pile of random rocks just sitting there, I would ask why they were there. Then that opened up the opportunity to tell the story. God had rescued them from Egypt, provided a way for them to cross the Red Sea, provided food for them in the wilderness, and helped them cross the Jordan. There are many more things that God did for them as well. All of that and the passage I shared came into my mind as God showed me something a few weeks ago.
On a recent family vacation to Mackinaw Island, we were on our bike ride around the island. We stopped at this rocky area by the water for a rest. There were rocks of all sizes and shapes and some bigger going out a little bit into the water that you could walk on. On the bigger rocks, there were little stacks of rocks that people had done. So of course we tried out luck at this rock stacking thing. As I was stacking my pile, I thought of this passage I shared about and what a stack of rocks meant to them. So I was trying to stack as many as I could and realized that wasn’t going to work. At that time was when God told me “stack 6”.
I fumbled around to find just the right rocks to use. I found two large rocks and four smaller rocks. I began to try and stack them. I tried a few different ways to stack them before I figured it out. The way I stacked them is in the picture below. Once I was done, God told me what I was looking at - while the pile meant.
The pile represents my family. 6 rocks. 6 people. The two big rocks represent me and my wife. The four little rocks in the middle are our kids. I took a picture. As I sat and looked at the rocks, I was reminded of all that God had done for us. I was reminded of all the things God has brought my family through. I was reminded of the promises that God has for all of us. I was reminded of how God is protecting and watching out for us.
The reminder of a pile of rocks that God had Israel put in place for them to be reminded of God’s goodness and favor to them is still serving as a reminder for me now many centuries later.
As we continued on our bike ride, I kept seeing little stacks of rocks along the way. I wondered as I saw them if they were there because people were just having fun or if they were having the same reason for stacking them as I did.
But every time I saw a stack I know what I was reminded of - what God has done for my family.
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