Here's a practical idea for cultivating a child's faith. As the people of Israel conquered their enemies and settled into Canaan, God wanted to be sure that future generations were aware of how he had worked in their lives. He instructed them to build monuments that would give parents and other adults the opportunity to tell children what God had done. Because children are naturally curious and ask a lot of questions, the monuments would provide natural "conversation starters" about spiritual things.
We, too, can nurture our children's faith by creating physical signs and symbols that have spiritual significance. A plaque with a life verse or poem, artwork that portrays a spiritual truth, a tree planted at a significant moment in a family's life, a grouping or collection of special objects that represent moments when God intervened in a miraculous way: all these can trigger opportunities to discuss the many ways we experience God's presence in our lives as we journey with him. (See also 1 Chronicles 22; Ezra 3; Proverbs 2:1-15; John 3:16-21.)
Joshua 4
The People Set Up a Monument
4 After Israel had crossed the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua:
2-3Tell one man from each of the twelve tribes to pick up a large rock from where the priests are standing. Then have the men set up those rocks as a monument at the place where you camp tonight.
4Joshua chose twelve men; he called them together, 5and told them:
Go to the middle of the riverbed where the sacred chest is, and pick up a large rock. Carry it on your shoulder to our camp. There are twelve of you, so there will be one rock for each tribe. 6-7Someday your children will ask, "Why are these rocks here?" Then you can tell them how the water stopped flowing when the chest was being carried across the river. These rocks will always remind our people of what happened here today.
8The men followed the instructions that the LORD had given Joshua. They picked up twelve rocks, one for each tribe, and carried them to the camp, where they put them down.
9Joshua had some other men set up a monument next to the place where the priests were standing. This monument was also made of twelve large rocks, and it is still there in the middle of the river.
The People of Israel Set Up Camp at Gilgal
10-13The army got ready for battle and crossed the Jordan. They marched quickly past the sacred chest and into the desert near Jericho. Forty thousand soldiers from the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh led the way, as Moses had ordered.
The priests stayed right where they were until the army had followed the orders that the LORD had given Moses and Joshua. Then the army watched as the priests carried the chest the rest of the way across.
14-18"Joshua," the LORD said, "have the priests come up from the Jordan and bring the chest with them." So Joshua went over to the priests and told them what the LORD had said. And as soon as the priests carried the chest past the highest place that the floodwaters of the Jordan had reached, the river flooded its banks again.
That's how the LORD showed the Israelites that Joshua was their leader. For the rest of Joshua's life, they respected him as they had respected Moses.
19It was the tenth day of the first month of the year when Israel crossed the Jordan River. They set up camp at Gilgal, which was east of the land controlled by Jericho. 20The men who had carried the twelve rocks from the Jordan brought them to Joshua, and they made them into a monument. 21Then Joshua told the people:
Years from now your children will ask you why these rocks are here. 22-23Tell them, "The LORD our God dried up the Jordan River so we could walk across. He did the same thing here for us that he did for our people at the Red Sea, 24because he wants everyone on earth to know how powerful he is. And he wants us to worship only him."
Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc. All rights reserved. Excerpted from The Bible for Today's Christian Woman, CEV, page 223. Used by permission. For reprint information call 630-260-6200.
