“Mom, look!” my little Charis calls.

She holds out her pudgy 2 year old hand to me, face upturned in the bright sun.

“I found rocks!” she says.

“Oh, you did!” I praise her, an uncontrollable smile pulling at the corners of my mouth.  She has proudly singled out and collected a special 5, and to her they are a remarkable find.

“These are for you,” she says, dropping them in my hand and running off to the slide.  This is her other remarkable discovery.

The big kids have been taking swim lessons at the Community Center and so the littles and I spend the hour at the playground across the street.  The first day I had to hold her hand each time she went down the slide.  The next time we began again, until her 5 year old brother pushed her down and she discovered she survived (and thrived).  Now she climbs up and slides down again and again, and I sat there rolling her treasures around in my hand and wondering why, in a virtual sea of rocks, these 5 caught her eye.

And I think of Joshua stepping up, when God appointed him leader of Israel when His servant Moses died.  After hundreds of years and generations of Abraham’s seed, the time to enter the promised land had finally come to pass.

God told Joshua, “This day I will begin to exalt you in the sight of all Israel…”, for God would continue to do “miracles and fearful things” among the people {Exodus 34:10} and undergird Joshua’s leadership so that the people would trust that he indeed spoke for the Lord.  And God told him to be strong and courageous, for he would need to be for the adventures ahead.

God had Joshua lead the people across the Jordan River to get to the land that the Lord had promised them.  It was the harvest season, when the river overflowed its banks, but God cut off the waters so that they could cross on dry ground just as He had done when their fathers crossed the Red Sea.

To help the nation of Israel remember the miracle God did for them, He had them collect 12 large stones from the riverbed {one for each tribe} and set them up as a memorial to the occasion.  When their children asked them about the memorial, they were to recount God’s faithfulness through the generations, forever.

Rocks from a riverbed.

Rocks to remember miracles.

But don’t we live in a sea of miracles each and every day? 

This whole entire universe and every living which God created and declared to be good, and continued to sustain {says the Amplified Version}.

Our very breath. 

The faithfulness of our hearts to beat on.

The sun that shows up each morning and the seasons that return each year.

The apples growing on my trees that our family will relish, and the rose hips on my rose bushes that will nourish the deer through the fall.

The electric range I ordered for my kitchen today… God knew it was going to be a necessity and provided the means to buy it through the extreme generosity of the churches we visited on camp trips through the spring and early summer.

The restoration of a friend’s sight, from fragmented to whole, when she visited me for a HK session earlier this summer.  What a gift to be allowed to be part of that.

The timely rains that have kept the garden watered this summer.

The bouncing feet and knees that thump across my belly with increasing strength and duration (come, October, come).

My salvation.

Yes, I live in a sea of miracles, all of them a gift from the God who loves me best and most.  He who enables me to be strong and courageous, and slide through life holding His capable hand.  How many will I take time to notice?  Will I take time to thank the Lord?  Will I remember to share of His faithfulness to me with others?

How about you?  How has God been faithful to you?

Rocks to remember.

Thank you for your blessings, Lord.

 

                                       “Dancing Baby”