When Dave and I came to Rio Rico five years ago we noticed that many of our neighbors’ homes and homes in other areas were marked by large stacks of rocks in their yards. The proper term for these piles of rocks is “cairn”.
For hundreds and even thousands of years they have been used as trail markers, burial markers and monuments to designate a specific event. When I asked a couple of neighbors why they had stacks of rocks in their yards the answer was simple, “we have lots of rocks and we like how they look”. No particular reason other than aesthetics, they are yard art.
However, I remembered a time when the Lord had the children of Israel make a stack of stones and it was a memorial to His faithfulness. The Israelites were crossing the Jordan River and entering their “promised land”. This was the place the Lord had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob that He would give to the Jewish people. This morning I was reading in Joshua and came across those verses again.
“Joshua chose twelve men; he called them together, 5 and told them:
Go to the middle of the riverbed where the sacred chest is, and pick up a large rock. Carry it on your shoulder to our camp. There are twelve of you, so there will be one rock for each tribe. 6-7 Someday your children will ask, “Why are these rocks here?” Then you can tell them how the water stopped flowing when the chest was being carried across the river. These rocks will always remind our people of what happened here today.
8 The men followed the instructions that the Lord had given Joshua. They picked up twelve rocks, one for each tribe, and carried them to the camp, where they put them down.” Joshua 4:4-8 CEV
Twelve stones. One for each tribe of Israel. These stones would be a remembrance for their children, grandchildren and all future generations that the Lord had kept His promise and brought them to this land.
When we came to our new home we felt we had come to the Lord’s promised land. It had taken us seven years to sell our home and make it back to Arizona. God was faithful and brought us here.
There is now a stack of seven stones under the mesquite tree in our front yard. To the passers-by it’s just another stack of stones but to me it is a reminder of the seven years it took us to get here. It’s a monument of God’s faithfulness and abiding love. Each time I walked to the mailbox, each time I walk to the neighbors, each time I take Glory out for a walk I see that stack of stones and I remember.
Do you have something special that you need to be reminded of? Is there a time that you prayer for something specific and it took a miracle of God to see it happen? Have you made an indelible mark in your memory of God’s faithfulness? Is there something you can do to that will be a physical memorial your children or grandchildren? Is there some sort of keepsake that reminds you of God’s provision that can be handed down through the generations or maybe it’s just a stack of stones in the yard?
Make a monument to the Lord’s provision.
“Then Joshua told the people: Years from now your children will ask you why these rocks are here. 22-23 Tell them, “The Lord our God dried up the Jordan River so we could walk across. He did the same thing here for us that he did for our people at the Red Sea,[g 24 because he wants everyone on earth to know how powerful he is. And he wants us to worship only him.” Joshua 4:21-24 CEV