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Today's letter is the letter A.
Genesis 12:7..Then the Lord appeared to Abram and said, "I am going to give this land to your offspring." And Abram built and altar to there to commemorate the Lord's visit.
I love this imagery in the old Testament of folk, like Abram, building altars to commemorate an important moment with the Lord. As they were nomadic people they would return to the same place at some other point in their journey and pitch up their tents - they would see the pile of stones, their altar, and remember the occasion and reason why it was built and once again give thanks to God.
I often use this imagery when taking a funeral, especially for non-Christians, I suggest to those present that they, too, take a pebble and place it somewhere that was an important place for them and the deceased and when they visit that place to give thanks to God for that persons life but also ask God to be present in their own.I have met folk again in the shops who have seen me and have said, "I still have that pebble and I still pray to God and thank them for mum/dad/brother's life and I pray for myself."
Do you have altars in your life that you can revisit time and time again and give thanks to God?
This is a pebble I found in our garage - someone has painted the praying hands on it. Please copy and paste it onto the sidebar of your blog so that every time you open your blog you will remember like Abram to stop and remember how Great is our God.
9 comments:
I don't have objects to remind me to thank God for His blessings, but I continually do thank Him.
Dearest Judith,
Thanks for sharing your pebble.. It is such an interesting piece. I will paste it in my blog..
Thanking God is always in our hearts. This pebble would surely remind those who forget to remember how to thank our LORD.
Happy Valentines my friend..
Care,
Loida of 2L3B's
Wonderful post. Altars are BIG in my family. Our youngest daughter went through a health mess for about 4 years...it started in high school and was a mystery for a long time. Somewhere in the midst God gave me the idea of using flat stones for her to write moments of remembrance thoughts on...she collects them in a beautiful glass bowl. She can look at them and have the living evidence of God's love in her life.
Thank you for joining in. God has used the ABC's as part of His plan to pull me out of a "dark night of the soul" as Beth Moore would put. It's a blessing to me. Praying you have a grand day with Him!
I LOVE that painted stone, Judith, it's amazing! I'll try and paste it on my blog, but when I tried to put some now stuff down the side, it didn't work - It's strange, because only I put what's there already there??!! Ah, computers, they confuse me big time! Hope you're all well, and the wee puss!
Thank you Judith
Oh, Judith, I cannot imagine having to do a funeral for an unsaved soul. What a burden that must be, but what a powerful message you deliver. Did you know that our local Habitat for Humanity distributes stones to the volunteer builders with the name of each house on which they worked, such as "Smith Family" or "Jones Family"? We keep ours as remembrances of the warm and safe shelters these families now have.
Mercy, grace and peace, Lana
Memorial stones can be powerful reminders of what God has done. What a beautiful image you've created for those who don't have a heavenly hope.
:) Cori G.
Blessings Judith...I thought your word was Abram..Abraham...and then it was "altar" and what a beautiful photo of that pile of stones...is it from the Middle East? Amazing!
I enJoyed your pebble concept and Appreciate the photo of the pebble with the praying hands! Thank you for the insights and idea.
Hi Judith,
I'm new to the ABC's of the Word, and came over from Pam's blog to read yours. Wow what a cool Alter picture. I love that imagery. I do have a few little things around my home that remind me of God's blessing. One is a rock my daughter painted our names on in first grade when the did a Chapel presentation in school. They had to bring a rock and write on it what they were thankful for. It sits in our kitchen as a reminder to us to be thankful that God put us together as a family.
I love the pebble with the praying hands and will post it on my blog. Thank you for sharing it.
Carol:)
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