Rock of help

I think it’s important to suitably mark & remember special days. I’m not thinking of Sunday observance - well Sunday is very much a work day for me anyway (and not the only one I hasten to add!). I’m thinking more of anniversaries that remind us of significant moments in our lives.
This week Angie and I celebrate 21 years here in Norwich, and I am incredibly grateful to God. I’m grateful that He brought us here, and for the way that He led us. As seems to be the norm in these things, it was not a particularly easy move - there were lots of uncertainties and challenges, and reasons not to come! But we set out, in the fog as it happens, uncertain as to exactly what lay ahead. The rest is history as they say, and God has been very good to us!

It was a Jewish custom to set up stones or monuments at significant moments, when God had helped or delivered them, by way of reminder. I guess they really didn’t want to ever forget what God had done (although of course they did) and it’s difficult to miss a big lump of stone. The idea was that every time you passed it or bumped into it, you’d be reminded.. “Oh yes, God did that...!” On one particular occasion when God routed the Philistines and brought the Ark of the Covenant (signifying God’s presence) back to Israel, it says in 1 Samuel 7:12, “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far has the Lord helped us.”

Well, we haven’t set up any stones, but as I look at Kings, at the church family that God has gathered and used for the glory of Jesus both here in Norwich and across the nations, I am profoundly grateful for all the He has done - and for allowing us, by His grace to play a small part.
To quote a very old song: ‘Count your blessings, name them one by one, and it will surprise you what the Lord has done’! Oh it’s true!
Ebenezer, “Thus far has the Lord helped us.”

Goff