Stones of Remembrance

 Rock collecting was the theme this visit with the Solomon kids. They were both interested in almost any stone they found along the road. They really didn't much care what kind they were...the more the better.  So we collected a few rocks and washed them. As we put them out to dry...thoughts of my father came to mind.  When he knew that his memory was fading he would write on stones the memory of the days events. Simple messages of events and time  shared.  Nothing all that profound or wise in them selves...but that is just the surface of it.

I really don't know why he started but once Ed Brown started something he saw it to completion. I don't know if he thought of Joshua 4 and the stones of remembrance.   I have thought often in the months since his passing of those simple memories and of the memorial that those stones scattered among his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren have created. My son told me he has coffee with Gramps every morning...with the stone that he keeps by his coffee maker.  They speak to a life lived deeply and with a grace that transcends this world's liminted horizon line. I think of him often, at times I am sure that I hear his laugh and hope that in some small way that his legacy lives on in this child of Adam.

6 that this may be a sign among you. When you children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord.

So often it is the accumulation of little things that bring us to where we need to be...one step at a time.  In an age when change threatens to overwhelm us, I think of those simple stones of remembrance...that were gathered from the river bed of Jordan.  Or, those stones that my Dad gathered on any given day he was spending with his loved ones. They are powerful markers for the arc of our lives.  They give us hope in the times when we seem to have lost the path...and the way is steep with no rest on the immediate horizon.

What do they say?  That God is at work in our hearts even in the times when we feel as if we are a fallow field left without seed. God is at work in our hearts and minds and his plan remains for our good...no our best.  We have a future and a call that is not limited by time, space or any other created thing.


Does hope endure in the real world?  Yes of course silly man.  God has not brought us this far to leave us here...this far from home. So move the foot forward....that's it ...now the other one.  Until we see Him face to face one foot in front of the other. HOPENDURES.