Essay-Rock of Remembrance

Rock of Remembrance by Jennifer Tiszai

I stood on the banks of the Colorado River, the Arizona side, scouting for a rock. The overpass above me clattered with each passing car, its pylons covered with graffiti. A myriad of broken beer bottles testified to late night parties. I hoped the scrubby bushes, which concealed me from my family in the car up above, didn’t also conceal someone else.

Which rock, Lord? I prayed as my eyes swept the banks of the river. Surely You don’t want me to wade out to the middle of this river! Like the children of Israel who had been ordered by God to set up stones pulled from the Jordan River to remember God’s faithfulness to them, God had been calling me to choose a stone of remembrance.

Three months ago my husband and I had felt God’s calling to leave our church, families, and the area we had always lived in in California to move to Arizona. Our faith was being sorely tested as my husband hadn’t yet found a job in Arizona, our house in California hadn’t sold, but his job in California would end in a month. Peter would be attending a job fair on this trip to Arizona and we would be looking for a place to live as well.

The night before, I had taken a break from packing to do my Bible study. I was doing an on-line Bible study of Beth Moore’s. She was teaching out of Joshua 3 and 4 on God’s faithfulness. I need to hear this. Just yesterday I had been talking with a dear Christian friend about the “Arizona situation.”

“I’m not seeing much confirmation of circumstances,” I confided. “We thought when we surrendered to God’s will on this that things would move faster and be more clear. Now we’re wondering if we heard the call correctly. Or is that Satan planting doubt?”
We spent some time looking at Scripture, reading about Abraham, Moses, and Paul, all people who’s faith was greatly tested by contrary circumstances. I left encouraged that we were doing the right thing. Now God seemed to be confirming it again with Beth Moore.

“When the people of Israel crossed the Jordan River, Deuteronomy 31 tells us that the Lord crossed ahead of them,” Beth said. “When we cross into our spiritual promised land, we can be sure that the Lord goes before us to make a path.”

A trickle of peace began welling up in my soul. I knew the Lord was telling me He was going before us into Arizona and making a path for Peter’s job and for where we would live.

Beth continued, “Read Joshua 4:3. God tells them to take stones from the middle of the Jordan, where the priests were standing holding the Ark of the Covenant. Why do you think God told them to get the rocks from the middle? Because when we are in the middle of a situation it seems the deepest and the bleakest. He wants us to know that in the middle of a situation, He is there and will be faithful.”

An idea started to form in my mind, but before I could contemplate it fully, Beth had us turn to I Samuel 7:12, where Samuel sets up a stone and calls it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”

The Lord whispered to my heart, “Haven’t I helped you this far? Haven’t I always been faithful?”

The peace in my soul was bubbling away contentedly, but the Lord wasn’t finished with me yet.

Beth finished by saying, “Remember last week when we talked about having the faith to move mountains? Well God reminded me this week that when Jesus returns and sets foot on the Mount of Olives it will split in two and a path will be formed. Sometimes God won’t move a mountain but He’ll split it in two and make a path through it.”

Standing on the shore of the Colorado River, at the end of a dirt road, down a brushy embankment filled with broken bottles, I spied the perfect stone. It was flat and oblong, damp where it had been touched by the river’s edge. I picked it up. It was heavy. Heavy enough to last a long time to remind us of God’s faithfulness. As I clambered back up the slope, I saw my family watching from the bank. I lifted the rock over my head in a victory salute.

After giving the rock to my husband to place in the back of the car, we prayed for God’s blessing over our journey and thanked Him for His faithfulness. As we pulled out of the dirt road and back on to the highway in Arizona, I saw that the road perfectly split in half a mountain of volcanic rock. God had gone over before us.

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