Make A Moment

We will not hide these truths from our children but will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord. We will tell of his power and the mighty miracles he did. Psalm 78:4

My friend Barbara likes to take what God does to make a moment and a memory. Barbara tells this story:

To my ten-year-old grandson, Zac, it must have seemed like just another ordinary car pool that day. He was sitting in the front seat, chatting away with friends, when suddenly the driver of the car passed out at the wheel! Quick-thinking Zac grabbed the steering wheel and brought the car to safety on the shoulder of the road. This was not an ordinary day at all, but an extraordinary picture to Zac of God’s amazing protection.

As grandparents, we started Zac’s rock collection when he was around three years old. When I heard the story of Zac’s courage, I knew this was a moment God would want Zac to remember! The word remember means to “imprint,” a great word to describe what we wanted to see happen in Zac’s heart regarding this miracle. So many of the Scriptures on remembering were also linked to having one generation pass on the mighty deeds God had done to the next generation. I thought this moment would be a perfect opportunity to carry out the heart of those passages of Scripture.

We gathered our family around Zac, read Joshua 4 together, and explained what we saw as God’s teaching from the story. In verses 6-7 an explanation of remembrance stones is given: “To serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them . . . these stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever” (NIV).

We prayed and gave Zac a stone with the word courage etched on it. We wanted this story of Zac’s courage and God’s protection to be a part of our family’s legacy, passed from one generation to another.