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Signs or Piles

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, "What do these stones mean?" tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.
Joshua 4:4-7 NIV

I remember walking a track in the Blue Mountains with my wife for the first time. We following the directions in a book and having some trouble finding the starting place, until we saw a sign. It was a heap of rocks. Rocks? There are rocks every where, so why were these different. They were not just a pile of unorganised rocks scattered in a heap. They were strategically placed on top of each other to act as a sign. This was our starting place.

In Joshua 4, we read that when the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, Joshua instructed 12 men, one from each tribe, to pick up a stone from the middle of the river and place them down on the edge to serve as a sign.

As their children walked pass the sign and asked, "what do these stones mean?" The Israelites were to answer about God's power in helping them cross the river. Obviously to ask the questions, these stones must have stood out. They were not just a pile, they were a sign . A sign showing how great is their Lord.

Do we have signs or piles in our lives? When our kids see things in our lives do they see a sign and ask, "what does this mean?" or do they see a pile and ask nothing.

Let's make every effort to build signs, not piles, so our children will ask, "what does this sign mean?" and we can point them in the right direction towards God's greatness.

God Speed!

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