My Ebenezer

You know how when you feel like God has interacted with you in your life, you just have to tell somebody? Well, that's where I am this morning.

This has actually been something that has been unfolding over the last year or so, and I'm just now beginning to be able to see how miraculously our good Lord has been working! It began several months ago (maybe a year) when Steve said something to the effect that we should put up some kind of reminder like they used to do in the Old Testament to help us remember how [these are his exact words] "God pulls our ass out of a crack." (I told him he should start his own version of the Bible called the "CMV" - Crusty Man Version). Well, that just kind of stuck in my head.

Then, when we were on vacation in Mexico, Cindy shared something similar and read a devotion concerning a similar subject, and that stuck in my head.


And, then, in July I came across this devotional from the Upper Room that Mom and I read every day:

and I tore it out and put it in my Bible at 1 Samuel 7:12 because I was excited to learn that these monuments have a name "Ebenezer" (I always thought that was the name for a tightwad!), and it also explained that verse from "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" about raising an Ebenezer. I just love that hymn!

Then last week, Jeanne, my co-worker, returned from a personal retreat and was telling me about taking a hike and coming across a stack of rocks that had a sign posted talking about spiritual journeys and being guided, etc. I shared with her what I knew about an Ebenezer, whereupon she said it mentioned Ebenezer, but she didn't know what it was talking about, so that was kind of cool, so I had that on my mind.

Which brings me to this week. Landry's 18th birthday was on Thursday, and I have to admit I have been feeling a little melancholy, just realizing that things are changing around here pretty quick. (I've actually been mulling over these impending changes on the horizon for the last several months, and wondering what the Good Lord will want me to do once I'm finished raising children.) Anyway, I had bought Landry a case for his lap top and was digging in a drawer under the oven for a sack, and I was digging really deep because I couldn't find one and I came across some rocks that Landry had given me when he was a little boy. I thought "that's weird that I would find these on his birthday" and I just pulled them out, thinking I would throw them out. I started to drop them in the trash can, then I just couldn't, so I put them aside. That evening I was looking at them, and wondering if I could do something with them, and I just stacked them up on top of each other and it just hit me - I had "raised mine Ebenezer".

It was as if God was saying "See, you have been helped by me through the raising of three children." Oddly, there were three rocks, seeming to represent my three children, and this happened on my youngest's 18th birthday, to me representing the completion of all three kid's childhood. I was humbled and awed, and comforted, to have this tangible proof that God has been my help over the last 28 years. But God was not through with His message for me.

I set the little "Ebenezer" on my shelf and scooted it toward the back because I thought it would look kind of "westerny" there by me and Daddy's picture. But when I looked at it, God seemed to show me that He had been with me as little girl, and been my parents' help. Then I noticed on the left that Daddy's little hat from when he was a child was there, and God showed me that He had been with Daddy as a child, and been his parents' help. Surely, He is faithful through all generations!

So, I am going to keep my little Ebenezer to remind me how I have been helped, and how close my Lord is to me every day, because somehow I tend to forget easily. He is the "fount of every blessing!"

Samuel took a stone and set it up . . . He named it Ebenezer, saying,

"Thus far has the Lord helped us." 1 Samuel 7:12