No tags yet.
I’m sure any adult today would remember where they were and what they were doing when they discovered the horrific events occurring on September 11, 2001. We had feelings of fear, dread, shock, and deep sadness over the horrible loss that no one seemed to be able stop. Over the next few weeks, many us of were glued to the news to relive it and to delve into the how’s and why’s of this tragedy. Now, many years later, we don’t have those same strong feelings. We have chosen to go about most days without focusing on 9/11.
However, there is a place where we can go to remember the details and the heartbreak of 9/11. There is a National September 11 Memorial set up. In summary, its purpose is to honor the victims and to examine 9/11 and its significance. Its goal is to preserve history. If we were to visit that memorial, I know those same feelings of sadness and tears would come forth.
I was having a particularly rough day a few days ago. A great wrong had recently been done to me and I continued to relive the pain. My husband heard me crying and came to me. I asked him to pray for the healing of my heart, and he did. A great peace came over me and shortly after I felt direction from the Holy Spirit. In a very loving way, He said, “You are erecting a memorial for the wrong done to you to revisit your sorrow. Instead, you must erect a memorial for the goodness I have shown you to visit a place of praise.”
Sometimes, our hurt is so great that we don’t really want to forget. Our mind and body knows how serious it was, and we just want to go over it and over it again to try to understand how it could have happened. There are places we go to so that we can give honor and acknowledgement to the pain we went through. There are places, some physical and some intangible, that allow us to examine the significance of our misfortune. The problem is that we can never be truly healed and move forward if we choose to keep going back to visit those places.
In the Bible, the Lord directed Joshua to erect a different kind of memorial. He gave him instructions, and then Joshua carried them out:
Joshua 4:4-7
So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. 5 He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. 6 We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.”
We can erect memorials of pain or we can erect memorials of praise. Even though wrong was done to me, the Lord was so good to me. I can never let the bad become greater in my mind that the goodness of my Father. He has kept His covenant with me and I want to revisit that over and over again. The Lord intervened on my behalf and He has protected me. He has comforted me and He has led me through my darkest moments.
The verse above says that their children will one day ask what the meaning of the memorial was. The children will see the memorial they created and learn more about it. Do I want my children to have to learn about my memorial of pain, anger, or depression? Or do I want my children to get to learn about my memorial of God’s goodness to me and my family? The memorial I choose to erect now will affect my family’s future generations.
Father God, You have been a good Dad to me just like You said You would be. I choose to keep my eyes focused on You and Your goodness to me. I know I have to stop visiting places that cause me to revisit the wrong done to me. Please help me erect a memorial in my heart that causes me to remember the significance of the love You have shown me.