For those who have been hanging around our Place Called Simplicity you know all about our Memorial Box.  But for those who haven’t been dropping by very long, let me explain….

It’s a box filled with very tangible items, each representing a time in our lives where God provided, protected and proved Himself strong.  

In Joshua 4 God told the Israelites this: 

When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua, “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan from right where the priests stood and to carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. 

When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. 


These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

So the Israelites did as Joshua commanded them. They took twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, as the LORD had told Joshua; and they carried them over with them to their camp, where they put them down. Joshua set up the twelve stones that had been in the middle of the Jordan at the spot where the priests who carried the ark of the covenant had stood. And they are there to this day………. 

On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the LORD your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The LORD your God did to the Jordan just what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 


He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the LORD is powerful and so that you might always fear the LORD your God.”

So for many, many years we have gathered items and put them in our Memorial Box.  We lost our beloved Memorial Box when we lost our home to a fire a few years ago and, finally, after searching high and low found the one we have now.  

One of the most significant times, personally, declaring the value our Memorial Box has goes back to 2009.  We had just lost our home to the fire and were still reeling emotionally from that.   Dw, who had just returned from Africa was very sick, yet he had insisted on driving with me the 1120 miles [one way] to Iowa City for Isaiah to have surgery for his Arthrogryposis.   

As I drove farther from home, Dw got sicker and sicker and ended up being admitted to the hospital as well, which meant I had Dw on one end with Isaiah having surgery on the other end…and we were 1,000 miles from our home in an unknown city.

To top it off, the tests the hospital was running for Dw were alarming – clearly showing it was his liver.  Fear began to take it’s ugly grip as I grappled with: Dw deathly ill, Isaiah having surgery, not knowing anyone, the kids 1,000+ miles away and uncertain what was exactly wrong with Dw’s liver.  As panic overwhelmed me, suddenly, one by one, the trinkets from our Memorial Box zoomed by my mind’s eye in a steady stream.

Suddenly I was overwhelmed with God’s peace as He whispered,

“What is in your Memorial Box?
Do you not remember?
I have healed, protected, restored and rescued in the past.
I will not leave you.
I have this one too.”

The thing was that when the Lord whispered that to my heart, not one thing had changed, but instantly I *knew* – He had been faithful all those other times, His faithfulness would continue even in this Iowa City, husband very sick, son having surgery season.

It was one of the most powerful times in my life.


Tonight I have the beautiful privilege of speaking at a Women’s Ministry meeting in a church outside of Phoenix.   I was asked to share about our Memorial Box – and truly, other than the orphan, there is not much else I am more passionate about.  

So here is a thought for you, my bloggy friends…

As Christmas approaches and thoughts turn to gifts to buy, let me encourage every one to buy your family a Memorial Box {or your version of it} to have a tangible reminder of God’s active participation in your everyday life.   Or for anyone else you love.

There is nothing more needed today – then remembering the faithfulness of God.