In both of our churchyards you’ll find War Memorials. These were erected after the Great War as our communities – like thousands around the country – tried to come to terms with the horror of what had happened. 27 men lost their lives from two small villages in four years. I learned recently that stonemasons around the country were inundated with work in 1919-21, because so many communities were commissioning their own ‘stones of remembering’.
The power of memorials is not just for communities, though. Every month I receive applications from families to put stones in one or other of our churchyards to commemorate a loved one. It’s always powerful to read how a family tries to sum up what their loved one meant to them in a few words etched into stone. If you walk around any of our churchyards you’ll see hundreds of these ‘stones of remembering’: and each one is primarily a memorial of love.
Our passage today centres on Israel’s own ‘stones of remembering’. The people had just witnessed a great miracle – able to walk through the Jordan in flood season, as they prepared to enter the Promised Land. Before the episode finishes, however, Joshua commands one last thing: 12 stones are to be taken from the river-bed – stones which could only be picked up because the river had temporarily stopped flowing – and placed on the west side of the Jordan as a sign of what God had done. ‘These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel for ever.’ (v7) They were a nation’s ‘stones of remembering’.
Throughout the bible we are encouraged to remember, as part of our story of faith. To remember who God is, to remember what God has done for us, and for others. To remember times when God has saved us, or blessed us, or indeed times when we have neglected God and returned to him.
As I’ve said before, our memory is our identity. Remembering the past inspires our present and gives us hope for the future. Israel was soon to move on from this place of remembering: they had work to do and a land to settle in. But there’s a reason Joshua told them to mark this place ‘for ever’. It would be somewhere they could return to, to remind themselves of their story with God, of how God had been with them. The narrator notes that these stones ‘are there to this day’ (v9).
Today, take a few moments to remember. There may be loved ones that come to mind, people we want to give thanks for. And let’s also remember our journey with God: perhaps there’s a particular moment that comes to mind, too. Let that memory fill your heart, inspire you, and give you grace for your ongoing journey this day.