Daily Devotion for January 4, 2005

Memorials

 

Hereby you shall know that the living God is among you. . . .So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever. —Joshua 3:10 and 4:7

 

In today’s Old Testament passage, the feet of the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant touch the water of the river Jordan, the river parts, and the people pass through on dry ground. Joshua then instructs representatives from the twelve tribes to take stones from the dry riverbed and make a memorial to the miraculous act of God in the lives of his people.

 

We are in the season between memorials. We no longer have the markers of Advent to remind us of God in our midst—the candles and wreath, the calendar to count the days to his miraculous birth, the angel on top of the tree. Christmas is past, and Easter is not yet here, with its markers of the Last Supper, the cross, and the empty tomb. But perhaps we have our own personal memorials; those things that help us tell the story of God’s work in our lives. The people in Joshua’s story take their stones from the midst of the waters that were calmed by
God. Perhaps our memorials include stones gathered from rapid currents. The stones remind us of a story without end, the ongoing story in which we are called to participate.

 

We have many memorials on our journey: birth certificates and adoption papers, tassels and diplomas, wedding rings, family photo albums and gravestones. If we look closely at these markers as we tell our story, perhaps we’ll see that God was in our midst all along.

 

Prayer
Help me to always see that you are with me on this journey of life, you have a reason, a purpose for me, and will enable me to accomplish all the good you have planned, if I only surrender to you.  Take my life!  Amen

 

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Tim Hetzner - President - Lutheran Church Charities
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