The painful moments in life and the healing that takes place.

Each of you lift a stone onto his shoulder, one for each[b] of the Israelite tribes, 6 so that this will be a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ 7 you should tell them, ‘The waters of the Jordan were cut off in front of the ark of the Lord’s covenant. When it crossed the Jordan, the Jordan’s waters were cut off.’ Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites. Joshua 4

 We learned in our Life group that in the biblical times the Jewish people would erect these huge stones  to serve as a reminder to future generations of God's faithfulness to his people.. As I watched this Ray Vander laan clip I was reminded that in my life there have been key things that have happened that clearly point people to God.

Each of us have our own ' standing stones' to mark our significant occasions of our lives. Such things like graduating from college, getting that first career job, falling in love, getting married, the birth of a child and all of the significant milestones that come along with that are just some of those examples.

   Then there are those 'standing stones' of our lives that represent the painful events.Only when we reach the culmination of those events do we see God's hand in them and when we do they serve as a reminder to people by pointing them to God.  For many who have traveled down that road you know what I am talking about. Like the fiery furnace that Daniel and his friends entered into we also enter the furnace with the loss of a loved one or a debilitating health crisis. Just as God had been with Daniel and his friends which kept them from being burned alive we will eventually see that our Lord is standing by our side through our own painful journey. It is when we come out of that process  that becomes the ah ha moment of clearly sensing God's presence  that points people back to your God. That, my friends, becomes your standing stone.

At my son's Christian K-12  school there are several standing stones in the front of that school .  Whenever I am visiting the school I remember the painful events that had occurred in the past, but I also remember God's faithfulness of always being there.

My own personal standing stone moments includes the day I accepted Jesus Christ as Savior Next to  that standing stone are the stones representing my marriage to my wife and the blessed adoption of our two children as those stones are reminders of God's blessings upon me. The not so good' standing stone' was our time of grief when our daughter died suddenly and unexpectedly in June 2007. For the first several years I could see no purpose with her death, but when made a conscious decision to keep honoring God on each subsequent Sunday I began to see that God hadn't forsaken my family. It was at that moment the death of our child became a 'standing stone' that would ultimately point people to God

What are some of your life's memorable moments, good or bad, that could one day become your standing stones?  Perhaps, you are in the midst a life crisis where you wonder if God had abandoned you. If so, do what I did and lean into your crisis and trust God for they journey you are on.  One day, like me, you will noticed and sense God's presence in that crisis.  God wants to journey with you and help you be a living testimony to future generations of God's faithfulness.

What does that look like in your own life?  What do you want future generations to know about the faithfulness of your God? Just as 1 Peter 2:5 reminds us we are to be 'living stones' that God is using to build a spiritual house.