Remember God’s Provision

By Russ Ramsey

On the desk where I’m typing these words, I have a small collection of quartz stones I’ve picked up over the years from hikes in Colorado. On the shelf behind me, there are a few other stones from places I’ve visited. The reason I like to pick up stones as souvenirs is because they are actual pieces of a place—more than reminders, but physical points of connection. I keep them not just to remember the hike I took but to remember why I was there in the first place—to refresh my heart, mind, and body.

Out in the mountains, life gets very simple. I walk, rest, hydrate, take in calories, and then burn them. I’m left with a lot of good time to think, and invariably my thoughts turn to gratitude to God for the many ways He has taken care of me over the years. I think about all the ways He has led me when I couldn’t see what He was doing. I think about the people and resources He has brought into my life to equip me for the work He has called me to. I resonate with the psalmist who says “the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places” (Psalm 16:6).

When I think about the memorial Israel makes from the stones from the river bed, one of the things I love about the passage is how those stones tell a story. No one can describe what that monument means without talking about the miracle of the Jordan drying up or how those stones were inaccessible until the Lord made a way for the people to pry them out of the mud and stack them. They remind people of the Lord’s provision—not just of resources but of guidance. The road they had been walking for a couple generations now was a harrowing journey which could have, at many points, ended in disaster. But the Lord didn’t just look after them, He looked ahead for them too. He led them. He sustained them. He preserved them. And He brought them to those waters of the Jordan and led them on.

So they took pieces of the place and set up a memorial—like the stones on my desk—to remember the Lord’s faithful provision and guidance. Monuments are meant to arrest our attention and cause us to remember the Lord’s faithful provision and guidance.