Moms in Faith

Stones of Remembrance

"When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 'Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.'

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, 'Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.'” Joshua 4:1-7

I have loved this passage for a long time. I love it when I can use something practical and concrete to teach a purpose to my kids. As you now know, we have been renovating a fixer-upper house all summer. One of the things we added to the house is a fireplace. I told my husband, if this suburban girl is moving out to the country in Indiana, then, we must have a back-up source of heat for the winter! Well, our back-up source of heat has become more than I imagined. It has become a centerpiece of God's promises for our home. What an amazing blessing!

We went back and forth on what the fireplace would look like and the placement. We ended up putting it right in the middle of our home and covered it in stone. We were blessed to have a guy named, Joe, working on the fireplace. He is definitely a believer and he came up with a fun idea for the stone. He told us when he was ready to put the stone on, our family could all come over and each pick out and put on a piece of the stone! He also said we could write our names on it. I was, of course, so very excited! Another idea to include the whole family as we renovate our home.

So, we all came down one day and each kid picked out a stone, wrote their name on the inside and placed the stone on the fireplace. This was already great, but when I saw Joe had picked out all cornerstones for us to place, I was impressed. It immediately reminded me of several verses in the Bible that talk about the "cornerstone" who is Christ.

"So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: 'See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who relies on it will never be stricken with panic.'" Isaiah 28:16

"The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; the Lord has done this, and it is marvelous in our eyes." Psalm 118:22-23

"Jesus is ‘the stone you builders rejected which has become the cornerstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:11-12

In a previous post, I wrote about "off-roading with God." This whole moving experience has been an "off-roading" experience. Some people put their house on the market, quickly sell it and buy another one. No big deal, less than 6 months average. Well, from the time we put our house on the market to the time we will actually move into our new house, it will have been a very bumpy 18 months! However, God has been faithful the entire process. We have trusted in His guidance, followed Him in the planning, and seen Him do amazing things as a result.

AND...Now we have this beautiful stone fireplace right in the center of our home to remind us of God's promises and faithfulness. Our very own "stones of remembrance." When our kids ask us questions about God's promises as they grow, we can point to the fireplace and remember all He has done to bring us here. What a beautiful blessing! :)