November 6, 2023
Joshua 4:1-24
And then he told the People of Israel, “In the days to come, when your children ask their fathers, ‘What are these stones doing here?’ tell your children this: ‘Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry ground.’
Maybe it is because I just spent significant time with my daughter at her college campus; perhaps it's seeing the little ones running around at missional community; but this story from Joshua 4 hit me particularly hard today.
This idea of passing along the stories of God to the generations to come is something so very beautiful.
Every Sunday I experience an extreme juxtaposition. In the morning I serve a congregation that is predominantly comprised of men and women who are older than I am. In the evening I serve a congregation of people who are younger or the same age as I am. Some of the younger families have little children. This stark contrast each week is something that is beginning to leave a mark on me.
As I think about this passage in Joshua 4 it strikes me that older people of faith need to be around younger people of faith. They need to be able to tell the stories of God's faithful work in their lives.
Younger people of faith need to be around older people of faith. They need to hear the stories of God's faithfulness in generations past.
When we don't have the cross-generational conversations then we are in danger of forgetting God's faithfulness.
Throughout the story of the people of God we are told to remember. Often there are these moments where physical reminders are crafted to force the question. Of course to remember demands that we are intentional to hold on to the good and the beautiful things that God has done. We are to reminisce and share the stories otherwise they will get forgotten.
It is these stories of God's faithful past that help us hold on to hope in the midst of the difficult present that we inevitably find ourselves in.
The question I'm pondering today is this, “Am I intentional in my relationships with those older and younger so that through them I might embrace hope?”
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