There are so many unknowns right now, but nothing about them is new to God. Recently, I was looking back over family updates from years back. In 2010, we didn’t know when we would be moving, where Jonathan would be working, or when baby #5, our sweet Josiah, would be born. It seemed we had more unknown than known. What I can tell you about the unknowns, uncertain and even scary days, is that the closeness of God is palpable. It is a closeness that brings tears and love, patience and peace, along with a flood of knowing He is all that matters. Oftentimes, I find rereading updates I have shared to be so helpful, because I have forgotten those times of God’s faithfulness. I realized it is no accident that in the Old Testament when leadership is changing hands as one is about to die, there is a reciting of the whole story of all that God has done. We think we won’t forget, but we do. And I have learned the best way to remember is to write them down.
We have tried through the past four or five years to get river stones when we go on trips. Partly to remember our trip but also to remember and list what we are grateful for from the past year. I have always thought that if we focus on what we are grateful for, it will draw our hearts toward God’s faithfulness and help us to remember. And it can, and it is good to focus on moments of gratefulness. But this year as I started a family journal of our grateful moments during the corona virus, I realized that something was missing.
I reread the scripture that started us on the “Stones of Remembrance” journey. In Joshua, it states, “Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. 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.”
While it is great to remember and focus on all that we are grateful for, sometimes we need to come as we are with any frustrations, anger, or sadness. Then we can know we have really been heard, and most importantly, we are STILL loved. I want all of my family to come to the table and share from the heart, on the great days, and on the tough days. If we only show our perfect side to our kids they might grow up experiencing frustration and a feeling of failure when they face trials. Because trials will come! We want our children to see that God’s faithfulness is real, His love is real, His forgiveness of our sins is real, because He is real!
From the highs and lows that have already happened in 2020, I pray that you will write down your experience and thoughts, and find a way to help others younger to remember. Remember God’s faithfulness and His power. To encourage those around you to come as they are to the feet of Jesus. And these words from one of my favorite books, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, apply now as much as at any time!
But no one except Lucy knew that as it circled the mast it had whispered to her, “Courage, dear heart,” and the voice, she felt sure, was Aslan’s, and with the voice a delicious smell breathed in her face.
And I pray that you too may hear God whisper during this time, “Courage, dear heart”
