stones and stories

i am a story teller.  

my friends laugh at me, and how i will include the smallest details, like how they served avocado with the omelets. it may not be a plot changing detail, but it makes things more interesting.

now my husband and i travel the world teaching, but my story-telling started long before i was acquiring airmiles, and standing behind pulpits.

my first full time ministry position was at a home for young girls in unplanned pregnancies.  i used to sit on a stool in the kitchen and tell them some of my crazy stories.  their protruding bellies would shake while they laughed at my embarrassing moments, all the while trying not to act to entertained as teenagers sometimes do.

and again, my storytelling came alive when i worked with the two year olds in the church nursery on friday nights.  i would hire the assistance of puppets and all kinds of accents to re-tell them the stories of the Bible.  i called it preaching.  preparing for the days to come. (hey, if you can captivate two year olds, you are ready for the masses right?)

as we approach our one year anniversary next month, i’ve been a bit more reflective lately.  yesterday, i read in joshua about the memorial stones.  i love the value God placed on remembering to the israelites.  possibly because i find myself buzzing from one blessing and full-filled dream to the next without taking a moment to create a memorial stone.  

“Then Joshua set up twelve stones in the middle of the Jordan at the place where the feet of the priests who carried the ark of the covenant were standing, and they are there to this day.”

Joshua 4:9

it also reminds me that story-telling was an old testament command. 

“Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children ask ^[c]later, saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’ ⁷ then you shall say to them, ‘Because the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.’ So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.’”

Joshua 4:6-7

story-telling is a beautiful way of remembering and sharing the goodness of God with the generations to come, that they may feed on his faithfulness.

“Trust in the Lord and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.”

Psalm 37:3

remembering has a way of filling us with faith for the road before us.  it’s a powerful thing. 

my prayer today is that i (and you too) can take the time to remember.  that i will not forget to place memorial stones at all the places where God has reached down from heaven and touched this earth before me.