How do you record family history? Some of us have multiple charts of names with birth and date deaths. My husband has several notebooks of such charts plus old photos from his interest in family roots. I have some family history information that goes back to a great-great-something grandmother from Norway named Ingeborg, which means “hero’s daughter” or “refreshment.” (I named my daughter “Inga.") I also have a note, passed on by my mother, that somewhere in distant family lore a Viking ancestor eloped with a French nobleman’s daughter, probably a princess. Because she disgraced her family by running off with a wild man, her family expunged her name from local records. Whoa.
Let’s get serious. How do your record your spiritual history? In Bible times, rocks were often heaped in a pile to note a historical or sacred occasion. One of the most famous was on the west side of the Jordan River. It marked the end of forty years of wandering in the wilderness, the completion of an entire nation migrating from slavery in Egypt to a new homeland in Canaan. The book of Joshua tells about this monument, established about 1400 B.C. As the Israelites crossed over the Jordan River—its waters miraculously held back--Joshua relayed God’s command to have a leader from each of the twelve tribes choose a large riverbed stone. These they were to heap at Gilgal, just east of Jericho, as a monument for future generations to remember both miracles of water-crossing: the Red Sea and the Jordan (see Joshua 4).
The “Jordan Stones,” the final section of your Personal Prayer Notebook, is an ongoing list recounting what might be called the “God-times” in your life. There may be happenings prior to your faith decision where, looking back, you realize except for the protective hand of God you wouldn’t be where you are now. Perhaps there was serious health issue, a car wreck or a bad relationship you left. Your decision to follow Christ would be one “Jordan rock.” Maybe there was a financial provision that had to be a miracle. Births of children are definite “God-times”!
Take some time in compiling your “Jordan rocks.” Think through stages of your life (childhood, teens, early adulthood, marriage, children, career, and so on). Identify what might be the fingerprints of God on your life. Write them down as God-moments. For example, next to 1978, the year I turned 31 and both my parents died, I wrote: “God in the darkness of grief: ‘I will never leave you not forsake you.”
The use of this list? As you look through it, to praise God for His faithfulness to you. This is a time when it’s okay to dwell on the past, when you see it through the lens of how God is moving you forward in His purposes for your life—and for eternity. It’s an open-ended list because—as that old saying goes—God is not finished with you yet. The list might also be a tool to share your faith with others.
In the spirit of the Jordan monument, you remember… “so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God” (Joshua 4:24).
Next week: Praying without the book
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