Memories are a funny thing. They come and go and are hard to hold on to. What we remember is not up to us. It is just there. There are many things I wish that I did not remember and there are many things that I wish I did.
We can impact this though. God knew that we would need help remembering so he told us to be intentional about it. In Joshua chapter 4 God performs a miracle by parting the Jordan River and the Israelites crossed on dry ground. He tells Joshua to command the people to take 12 stones from the Jordan, one from each tribe, so that they could set up a memorial to what God had done there. The hope was that when they saw the stones they would intentionally remember this moment. The desire though was not just that this generation would remember, but it had a much larger purpose.
Joshua 4:21-24 – He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 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. 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.”
We could learn a lot today from this moment. In our lives today are we setting up intentional ways to remember what God has done? There is no guarantee that we will remember the great things He has done even when He performs miracles. We must remember on purpose.
Once we have done that, we have a second responsibility and that is to share with the next generation the great things God has done. These memorials to God’s greatness are to help us remember what God has done, but even more importantly it is meant for those that come after us to know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and that they might always fear Him the way that we have done! So look at your lives and remember what God has done and then set up a memorial to God’s greatness for future generations who will see it and know for many more years how great our God is.