I have always been intrigued by the directions of Moses to the Children of Israel, just prior to releasing them into the Promised Land.  It seems that much time and thought was given to what "final instructions" needed to be communicated to this great nation that he had led for well over 40 years.  Much like a parent, Moses had waddled through this nation's development as a "newborn" upon leaving Egypt; its infancy and teen years at Canaan the first time and then through the wilderness.  Now, he was about to essentially release them out into the world on their own, and he wanted to make sure that he impressed upon them the most important of all of his lessons - walk with God!

I am sure that you have all heard the text in Deut. 6 referenced so many times, that you have probably memorized it by now.  Well, me too.  But that isn't the particular part of the story that I want to concentrate on.  (Am I allowed to do that?  Will the Christian homeschool police come after me for skipping that oh so important text?)  Instead, I'd like to look at something else that the people were instructed to do by their new leader, Joshua.

"And the people came up out of Jordan on the tenth day of the first month, and encamped in Gilgal, in the east border of Jericho.  And those twelve stones, which they took out of Jordan, did Joshua pitch in Gilgal.  And he spake unto the children of Israel, saying, When your children shall ask their fathers in time to come, saying, What mean these stones?  Then ye shall let your children know, saying, Israel came over this Jordan on dry land.  For the Lord your God dried up the waters of Jordan from before you, until ye were passed over, as the Lord your God did to the Red sea, which he dried up from before us, until we were gone over:  That all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty: that ye might fear the Lord your God for ever."  Joshua 4:21-24

Wow!  Did you see that?  Joshua had just brought this younger generation through the Jordan river and since many of them were either too young to remember or simply not born when they crossed the Red Sea, this must have been a tremendous and remarkable occurence!  I know I would have loved to see that!  Truthfully, I'd love to see the waters of Lake Michigan miraculously cleaned, but that is a different blog entry...

 The crossing of the Red Sea was a miraculous event.  Nothing like that had ever happened before and it was supposed to prove the awesome power of our God.  Unfortunately, after a little bit of time in the desert, the people forgot what God had done.  I mean, they didn't have it wiped from their memory, but apparently the testimony of it was no longer powerful.  The days in Egypt during which God performed His miracles, the "cloud and pillar" that God used to both guide and protect them once they left, and the parting of the Red Sea were all distant memories.  Now they were faced with new challenges and their hearts wavered at them.  And not long after, they simply "forgot" how miraculous these events had been.  Well, you know what that cost the people - denied entry into the Promised Land!

Joshua remembered all of that.  He knew the importance of not only noting God's Hand in our lives, but also the importance of recalling it in the future.  He set up a memorial for the people for the purpose of causing them to constantly remember what God had done, so that they would fear the Lord forever.  He also knew that as children were born to them, their naturally curious nature would cause them to ask questions about it.  These children could also benefit by this memorial because the parents would recount the story of the Jordan, as well as tell how their ancestors had been brought through the Red Sea on dry land by God Himself.

 I believe that this same principle should be operating in our lives today.  I will be the first to admit that I am neither a scrapbooker, nor keeper of prayer journals.  Something has to change though.  I don't want to risk "forgetting" what God has done for me and for my family in past years.  We have been brought through some really tough times.  Everytime, every single time, God has placed a praise in my heart and a song on my lips!  Only Jesus can provide a deep set joy in your heart while tears flow from your eyes!  He is an AWESOME, AWESOME GOD!

I don't want the miracles that I have seen in my life to "wax old", you know like that protective covering that covers ice cream left in the freezer too long.  The ice cream no longer tastes good because of it, it is undesirable now.  What if the works of God have lost their savour because "time" has made them either unexciting or just plain common knowledge now?  It is said that time heals all wounds, I wonder if that is always a good thing. In the midst of the pain, deliverance means so much more to me!  I need to remember the hurt, the pain, and then the miracle will keep its true essence.

I want my children to experience God in miraculous ways too!  I want them to desire God, to have a very personal relationship with the Saviour of their soul - Jesus Christ.  Between now and then, I can excite that desire in them through our family's memorials.  Just as reading of the parting of the Red Sea makes me desire to have a similar experience in my life, recounting past miracles that we have experienced as a family can do the same for them.

Now, I need to develop some way of "memorializing" these experiences and miracles.  I don't know if I can do a scrapbook - I'm still trying to make lapbooking a real part of our homeschooling experience.  For all of my regular blog readers, you know how often I get an entry in here, so journaling is probably out!!!!  But maybe we can do a Testimony Tuesday or a Thankfulness Thursday and let each member of the family write in an entry into a big bound book of some sort....

Whatever the method, we all need memorials.