Therefore these stones will always be a memorial for the Israelites. ~Joshua 4:7b
The next time you drive into a major city, take a look at the skyline. Many cities of the world are recognizable by their one-of-a-kind structures, easily visible from a great distance. The Willis Tower tells you that you’re near Chicago. The skyscraper that comes to a point at the top could only mean you’re in San Francisco looking at the Transamerica Building. Around the world, great structures like the Eiffel Tower and Big Ben let you know you’re in Paris or London.
You may have never thought of it this way, but every one of these buildings is a concrete, brick, marble, steel, or glass memorial to someone. If it weren’t for a few visionaries who took it upon themselves to spearhead the creation of these freestanding monsters, they wouldn’t exist. Another way of saying this is that every skyscraper in the world could be wearing someone’s name. Many of them already do. Each structure reminds passersby of someone.
Now let’s take a drive down your street and survey the “skyline.” Of course, your home isn’t visible from a great distance, but it does have someone’s name on it. Your home represents something or someone to every person who drives past. Here’s the question for the day: Of whom does your home remind people?
The only thing standing between the Israelites and their home was the Jordan River. So, just as He had done when the Israelites were faced with the daunting Red Sea, God performed another miracle and drew back the water like a curtain; the people walked across on a dry riverbed.
Even though Joshua did not hold an engineering degree from Stanford or MIT, he did know something about the importance of landmarks. And he knew how these landmarks could be a way of remembering.
So Joshua told one person from each of the twelve Israelite families to find a nice big rock from the dry floor of the river and carry it to the other side. Then he asked for these twelve large stones to be set together to form a visible structure. From that day forward, every time anyone saw these rocks, they thought about God. For many years, men could visit it on their own, or dads could bring their children to this site. “When you were just a baby,” they might say, “your mother and I carried you across the river on dry land. God did that for us. And He gave us our beautiful homeland. And do you know what else?” Children would wait for the predictable answer. “God also loves us.”
Can’t you see these dads, hand in hand with their sons and daughters, standing there in front of the stones, recalling God’s goodness?
When your neighbors take their children for a walk and stop in front of your house, what do they say? Whom does your place remind them of? Does your home speak to them of your strident attempts to make a name for yourself, or does it represent a place of welcome and kindness? Does it remind them of the God you love and serve, or is it only just a house with a number or your family’s name on the mailbox?
Put God’s name on your house. Let it remind your neighbors of His love and goodness. Impress them with the One who is in the process of building you into a man who loves them.