Have you ever noticed that life is a series of random moments strung together to form a day, a week, a month, a year? Random moments that if you don’t take the time to cherish them – record them in your memory banks – they will fade away and soon be forgotten. Maybe that is why I take my camera with me EVERYWHERE I go – so I can record the moments of my life for future reflection and recollection. My friends indulge me when I bring out my camera and start shooting pictures (although lately, I get more and more admonishments: Don’t put this up on Facebook! What is THAT about?). But it is important for me to record the moments, because life is fleeting and recording the good times helps me through the bad times.
In the movie, WITH HONORS, Monty (Brendan Fraser) sees Simon (Joe Pesci) playing with some rocks that he keeps in a little felt bag. When Monty asks him what the rocks are for, Simon replies that they represent his life and proceeds to tell a story about some of the rocks in his hand. It had become his habit that whenever he was in a “situation”, he’d pick up a rock and put it in his bag. Now, at the end of his life, when he wanted to remember something, he could look at the rock and remember his first date with his wife, or a friend who died in the war, etc.
In Joshua 4:5-8, God commands the children of Israel as they are crossing over Jordan, to stop in the middle of the river and pick up 12 stones (one for every tribe). And they were to keep these stones as a memorial for when they crossed into the Promised Land. Generations later, when their children saw the stones and asked, “what is the meaning of this stone?”, they’d have to tell the story of their redemption and of God’s deliverance and that way, the memory would never fade.
I encourage you to record the moments, take the pictures, gather up your stones. As sure as the sun will rise in the east and set in the west, there will be days ahead when you will be glad you did.
Be blessed.
© 2010 Kristina E. Smith
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