Daily Devotional

"Memorialized Faith"

"and said to them, 'Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.'" Joshua 4:5-7

If you've never seen the movie "Finding Dory", I imagine you don't have young children, but the movie is the sequel to Disney's hit film "Finding Nemo". In the original movie, Marlon is a widowed father who loses his son "Nemo" and swims across the ocean to "find" him; get it? Now of course, even if you haven't seen the second movie you can guess what the movie is about. Dory is a friend of Marlon's who he meets during his search of Nemo in the first film and Dory suffers from short-term memory loss. And there's a scene at the beginning of the second film that is the catalyst for the rest of the movie. Marlon and Dory get in a bit of a fight and Marlon says to Dory, "Go wait over there and forget. It's what you do best."

If we're being honest, I'd argue that many of us are forgetful. The majority of us may not have the challenge of living with short-term memory loss, but still, we need constant reminders for things we'd otherwise forget. My grandma used to tell me, "Boy you'd forget your head if it wasn't attached to your body, I tell ya." My grandma was from Louisiana. What's my point? Well if things are important enough to us, we will do certain things to ensure that we don't forget them. How much more should we do that when it pertains to the things of God?

In today's passage, we see Israel ending their 40-year timeout with Joshua their new leader, ushering them out of the wilderness and toward the Promised Land. They cross the Jordan river and God tells them to build a monument to "remember" His faithfulness. That way when future generations of people want to know about who God is and what He is capable of they may look at this monument and remember. The Bible also warns us in Deuteronomy 4:9, not to forget the things we've seen or let them fade from our hearts and even goes as far as to encourage us to teach them to our children.

As we are humans whose sinful nature falls short of God's perfect standard, may we work diligently at remembering that God remains faithful no matter what (2 Tim. 2:13). We, like the Israelites, each have our own story to tell of how we've seen God at work in our lives. But we also may need a physical reminder from time to time that will jog our memory and remind us that we may trust God again. As you reflect this day on some of the moments God has come through for you in incredible ways, I'd encourage you to pray and ask God how you may build a physical reminder for yourself and others of His faithfulness.

New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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