Joshua 3-4, Joshua 5: 1-12, Luke 22: 1-38, Psalm 65
Joshua 4: 20-24 (ESV)
“And those twelve stones, which they took out of the Jordan,
Joshua set up at Gilgal. And he said to the people of Israel, “When your
children ask their fathers in times to come, ‘What do these stones mean?’ then you shall let your children know, ‘Israel
passed over this Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the
waters of the Jordan for you until you passed over, as the Lord your God did to
the Red Sea, which he dried up for us until we passed over, so that all the
peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty, that you may
fear the Lord your God forever.”
Verses 20 through 24 from Joshua 4 show us the important of
memorializing and remembering the good things God has done in your life. Science
tells us that we are more likely to remember events that have a high emotional significance
for us, and that sadly often includes memories of pains and losses. God understands
us more than we seem to do ourselves, so he told Joshua to make a memorial out
of the 12 stones from the river Jordan so the Hebrews would always be reminded
of the miracle God performed when they left Egypt.
My daily practice this year has been to write down every
night 10 miracles that I’ve experienced that day. I received the inspiration to
do this from the Holy Spirit, so I would be always conscious of God’s miracles
in my life no matter how small. Some days it’s easy to remember 10 miracles,
and other days it’s hard and I end up writing down that “getting up in the
morning” is a miracle. What I love about this practice is that I am reminded
daily of God’s presence in my life. For example, I was not having a very good
day today. Something that I thought was going to be a very process turned out
to be a much harder process than I realized. That experience bummed me out and
I really did not want to go to the midweek service. I wanted to say home and
sulk, but I made myself go to church. When I was sitting in the garden of the
prayer chapel before the service, I saw two bunnies. I absolutely love seeing
cotton-tail bunnies hopping around the desert. I didn’t think I was going to
see any bunnies because the temperature was in the mid-90’s, and seeing the bunnies
touched my heart because I was so sure I wasn’t going to see them since it was
so hot. Seeing the bunnies seemed so miraculous to me because I was having such
a bad day. It’s like God knew what I was going through and sent the bunnies to
cheer me up. I’m going to “memorialize” this experience by writing it down, and
have a record of all the small things God does to keep me happy.
