I have a thing for travelling. We’ve travelled out west each year to see our family – driven twice, flown thrice – driven to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Florida, North Carolina, and all the states in between. I guess my parents are to blame for this “curse”. Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, we would drive as far north as Victoria Island and British Columbia and as far south as Hemet, CA. We had so much fun in my childhood years that I couldn’t wait to create those kind of memories with my own family.
The best part of any trip is being able to take home a souvenir. Do you remember the last time you bought something from a gift shop on your travel excursion? How did you respond when you bought it? Were you like me the last time where I was more concerned about not being ripped off by the price than how special the actual item could be to remember the trip by? If you have children, it’s vastly different to the way your children respond at the opportunity of taking it home. Their eyes glow at the thought of taking something home. When they put their hands on a potential find, they imagine it’s there’s and immediately identify it as theirs. Oh my! This could be mine! Sure the item cost a few pennies to make and even though they might perceive its cheap quality, they don’t care. It is special and it means more to them because all the memories they make today will be remembered the moment they put their hands back on it years later.
Do you remember when Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these”? (Matthew 19:14) I’ve always focused on the innocence of children when this passage comes up, but now in the context of a child’s reaction to a souvenir, this opens up a new dimension for me. Read Joshua chapters 3 and 4; you will find an amazing story similar to Moses parting the Red Sea. Joshua commands the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant to walk into the middle of the Jordan river. As soon as their feet touched the water’s edge, the river backed up as far as to the next town, the rest of the riverbed downstream went dry, and the thousands of Israelites crossed over to the other side.
I don’t know about you, but I think I’d faint at the sight of that. More importantly, though, I don’t think I’d ever want to forget about it. Neither did God want them to forget. That’s why Joshua had twelve men, one from each of the twelve tribes, each grab a large stone from the riverbed – while the priests still stood in the middle of the river carrying the Ark of the Covenant – and called them to create a memorial. They were charged to tell their descendants, whenever they asked what those stones meant, of the miraculous work God did before them.
Do you remember a marvelous work God has done before you? I surely can count many both large and small. How have you remembered His work? When God performs something amazing in your life and especially before your very eyes, listen carefully for His voice. He might ask you to grab a souvenir from His gift shop to remember Him by.
19 On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 20 And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.”
Joshua 4:19-24
24 days!
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