“Mom,” the tremble in her voice on the other end of the phone alerted me that something was wrong.
“Hi, sweetie. What’s up?”
Between the sobs, she choked out, “I just need you to remind me of the bears and the lions that I’ve seen God conquer. I’ve been staring at this giant too long. I’m so tired.”
I knew she had been praying and waiting for God to move in a painful situation, but her circumstances escalated.
And though her words seemed cryptic, I understood what she was asking me.
Much like the shepherd boy David in the Old Testament, who defeated the giant Goliath with a slingshot and a stone, my daughter needed me to help her gather stones.
You see, long before David’s sling swirled round and round, releasing a rock that brought Goliath tumbling down, he spent time gathering another kind of stone.
We read this in 1 Samuel 17:34-37, “I have been taking care of my father’s sheep and goats,” he said. “When a lion or a bear comes to steal a lamb from the flock, I go after it with a club and rescue the lamb from its mouth. If the animal turns on me, I catch it by the jaw and club it to death. I have done this to both lions and bears, and I’ll do it to this pagan Philistine, too, for he has defied the armies of the living God! The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!”
Did you see it?
Before David gathered a handful of rocks from the river to aim at Goliath, he walked down memory lane and gathered stones of remembrance. “The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine!”
He recounted the time that God strengthened him to kill a lion while protecting his father’s sheep. He recalled God empowering him to defeat the bear that threatened his flock.
This glance back at God’s faithfulness pulsed through his veins as he stood toe to toe, facing the bully Goliath. Through the act of remembrance, he found the courage to battle this behemoth that terrorized God’s people.
My daughter’s battle had gone on so long that she needed reinforcements. So together, we gathered stones.
We talked about how we had seen God move in her family over the years. We remembered when times were lean, but God stepped in and provided. We recalled the valleys that never seemed to end, only to look back on them now and see that God was planting flowers in the desert.
One by one, story after story, we built an altar of remembrance. By the time we finished collecting and constructing, God had turned her weeping into a tearful song of gratitude and hope for the future.
Call them battles, valleys, wilderness wanderings, or waiting seasons. We all face times when the eyes of our faith get blurred by our tearful prayers. It is hard to see what God is up to or if the dark cloud will ever lift.
Then let me remind you to remember. What has God brought you through? Where have you seen Him move mountains on your behalf? Do you have any “but God” moments?
Gather those stones. Build that altar. Let the faithfulness of God be your battle cry. Face your giant armed with the truth that God is good. He is always working in your story for His glory.
Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the Lord never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning.
Lamentations 3:21-23
