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Souvenirs II


            So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.” 
             So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day.
            Now the priests who carried the ark remained standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything the LORD had commanded Joshua was done by the people, just as Moses had directed Joshua. The people hurried over, and as soon as all of them had crossed, the ark of the LORD and the priests came to the other side while the people watched.  (Joshua 4:4-11) 

            What sort of souvenirs do you like? As a teen, my family traveled and we collected souvenirs. Of course, there were the pictures of me standing in front of the signs of the national parks we visited. We also got charms for what is now a full, heavy and noisy charm bracelet. Mom collected pewter figurines. As I got older, I changed from charms to letter openers. This year, I'm trying to add my own version of Pokemon Go "catches": pictures of birds and anything else that captures my attention. There are ten areas that I hope to go to in the next six months. 
            The Israelites tended to collect souvenirs, too. They had the tablets on which God had written the Ten Commandments, and Aaron's rod that budded, and a jar of manna. In today's passage, they added 12 stones. I don't know how Joshua set them up, but apparently it was clear that they weren't there naturally, because even kids were expected to ask questions about them. Those stones were the sign in front of the national "park" that was to be Israel. 
            Souvenirs are important. They remind us of places we've been and things we've seen and done. We need to be careful not to turn them into idols, but God seems to be of the opinion that objects can be important reminders for us. Do you have things that remind you of what God has done in your life?  Now might be a good time to start a new collection. When I decorated for Christmas, I used to pull together a collection of objects that represented intangible gifts that God had given me. It's not too early to start thinking about  this, because they can be out for Thanksgiving, too. I'm going to have to think about this one, because I have very little room to pile my "rocks" but it would be nice to have some souvenirs from this journey into my "promised land."

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