REMEMBRANCE

For the last five years, we have used Shepherd’s birthday as an opportunity to reflect on the past year and remember all the ways God has blessed us, answered prayers, and shown His faithfulness to our family. Each year, we come up with hundreds of examples, both big and small, that are evidence of how God is with us and for us. We write our blessings on birthday-themed “confetti” and decorate our walls. 

The more time I spend in God’s Word, the more I notice the call to remembrance. It is a steady theme throughout scripture, but I’d like to highlight a few examples that have stood out to me. 

The book Deuteronomy largely acts as Moses’s last big send-off speech to the Israelites as he was about to pass the baton of leadership to Joshua before they headed into the Promised Land. In reading through Moses’s parting words, I was struck by how many times he called for the Israelites to simply REMEMBER God. He urged them to:

Remember how God freed you from slavery.

Remember how He delivered you from your enemies.

Remember how He led you day and night through the wilderness.

Remember how He provided manna and water and met your every need.

Remember how He never left or abandoned you.

Remember how He was faithful and kept His every word.

God even established annual feasts and holidays, rich with tangible symbolism, for the Israelites to commemorate these momentous events in their lives and to help them remember Him. God knew they were a forgetful bunch so He graciously gave them yearly parties to help them in this department. 

Following in Moses’s footsteps, Joshua led the Israelites faithfully into the Promised Land and witnessed the power and provision of God countless times. From miraculous military feats with unlikely battle tactics to stopping the flow of the Jordan River to allow the Israelites to pass through on dry ground—these people witnessed the impossible and knew God alone deserved the credit for their victories. If you want to have your mind blown, read through the book of Joshua—who but God brings military defeat through marching, trumpets, shouting, giant hailstones, and making the sun stand still? There is far too much to detail here, but the takeaway is that God is all-powerful and when His people look to Him for their help, victory is certain.  

The miracle of God holding back the waters of the Jordan River for the Israelites to walk through it was reminiscent of how He’d parted the Red Sea when His people fled Egypt forty years prior. Since the latter miracle was displayed for the previous generation of people, it is likely that God was reminding this new generation of what He was capable of. God did not want his people to forget that He was their all-powerful provider, protector, and way-maker, so He instructed Joshua to have a man from each of the twelve tribes gather a large stone from the center of the Jordan. They would bring these twelve stones into their camp and set them up as a memorial— a tangible reminder of God’s hand at work. The intention behind the memorial stones was that one day their children would see them and ask what they meant, giving the Israelites the opportunity to not only reflect on God’s faithfulness themselves, but also to teach their children about all God had done for them.  

Fast forwarding many years in the biblical narrative, we see the idea of tangible reminders yet again in the book of 1 Samuel. After the Israelites turned from their idols and repented of their wayward living, God granted them victory over their enemies, the Philistines, in a supernatural way (1 Samuel 7). Their leader and prophet, Samuel, set up an Ebenezer as a stone of remembrance saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us” (1 Samuel 7:12). Samuel wanted the “stone of help” to be a physical, visible reminder of how God had acted on His people’s behalf every time the Israelites saw it. 

Throughout scripture, God’s call to remembrance is not only for the Israelites, but for us as well and it serves more than one purpose. God desires for us to have humble hearts of gratitude and acknowledge that the blessings in our lives are not due to our own striving, but due to His abundant mercy (Deut. 6:10-12). He also wants us to recognize the consistency of His faithfulness so we can face all future circumstances without fear, knowing that God will always be with us just as He’s always been (Deut. 7:18-19). 

Corrie Ten Boom, one of my favorite pillars of faith once said, “Never be afraid to trust an unknown future to a known God.” This type of fearless faith is only possible when you choose to REMEMBER who God is and what He has done for you.

Our family has found the practice of remembering God’s faithfulness to be critical for us in combating our fears and cultivating humble, grateful hearts as well. Shep’s birthdays have a way of unearthing our grief over what has been lost and our fear over what the future holds for him and our family. We’ve learned the best way to fight grief is with gratitude. The best way to fight fear is clinging to faith in our faithful God. Our gratitude and faith are increased when we take the time to look back and remember who God is and what He has already done. We can trust God because He’s proven Himself trustworthy. 

Our annual reflections have not only been a spiritually healthy practice for us, but they have been an amazing opportunity to teach our kids about God’s faithfulness in a way that is personal and applicable to them as well. Writing our blessings out on tangible pieces of “confetti” is powerful as it gives us a visible display of the abundance of God’s goodness— plus, it’s super festive! Win win!

This is my encouragement to you to adopt a habit of remembrance as well. Whether you opt for ebenezers, memorial stones, or blessing confetti— find a tangible way to represent God’s faithfulness and remember just how good He’s been to you. Watch your gratitude and faith increase as you fix your eyes on who He is and what He’s done for you.