I was inspired one Sunday by our small group leader and our group discussion about our stories. Towards the end of our class our leader played a song by Big Daddy Weave called "My Story". Then he challenged us to share our stories and to think about the main words used in the song. As we talked in our group, telling others our story is alot like in Joshua 4:1-24 when the stones of remembrance were stacked after crossing the Jordan, so that when future generations asked, "What are these stones here for?" The parents could tell their children the story of what God had done in making a way to cross the turbulent waters to freedom. What a beautiful way to pass on what God can do in our lives.
It leads me to remember how my family has a "stack of stones" on our old family farm in Indiana. In reality, it is an old fireplace that still stands and is the monument to my ancestors who gathered around it's warm in the old cabin that used to stand around it. The old rubble of rocks used to prompt me to question my father to tell me about our family members that stacked those stones and cooked meals within it's hearth. I learned much about the family I come from in my father's stories. My Irish heritage of pioneers who had homesteading the land and all the family that had lived and worked the land since. He would describe each of their personalities, trials, joys, and what eventually happened to every family member and then would leave room at the end of each of his orations for my own part in that story.
Just as I used to ask my earthly father to tell me the story of our family, I now as a grown woman am asking my Heavenly Father to tell me the story of our family and what story he wants me to write with him now. So many times I can only see my own way of telling my story and my family's story, based on my current circumstance. I am at a point as a grown woman, that I surrendering my stones (my story) to my Father's version. So I am sitting with the following questions to maybe get a glimpse of where God is leading me and how he wants, like in Joshua 4:1-24, to part the turbulent waters and for me to walk to the other side...to freedom.
-What stones does he want me/you to pick up from the river?
-What stones is he handing me/you to stack on the other side, that will be our "stones of remembrance"?
-What story does he want to write WITH us?
-Are we ready to surrender our story to him and co-create this life WITH him?
-What legacy of God's hope, love, life, victory, freedom, kindness, grace, justice, and mercy can we leave our children and others?
To see the HOPE, LOVE, LIFE, VICTORY, FREEDOM, KINDNESS, GRACE, JUSTICE, MERCY in our current situation.....that is OUR STORY, that is OUR SONG, our stones of remembrance that we can leave for our children and others.
