“Then Samuel took a
stone and set it up…He named it Ebenezer, saying, ‘Thus far has the LORD helped
us.’ So the Philistines were subdued and
did not invade …again.” 1 Samuel 7:12.
When I younger, my mother was given a piece of jewelry
called an Add –a-Bead necklace. It came
with a few gold beads at the bottom, and with each special occasion people would
add to the beads until her chain was full.
Being a lover of jewelry and beautiful gemstones, I was so excited to
learn of a new stone that has moved to the top of my list. It can’t fit in a jewelry box or hang on the
end of a small chain. It is a stone that
can always be mined from the deep clefts of our spiritual landscapes. Literally speaking, an Ebenezer is a
"stone of help," or a reminder of God’s provisional wonders. Our Ebenezer’s are those remembrances of God’s
deliverance for His children. My grandmother’s
journals are filled with these stones and are more valuable than any other
thing she owned. To see Grandmother’s
jewelry collection, one must only open any page of her 62 years of
journaling. Her journals bulge with
these stones that come toppling out whenever they are opened.
As God works in and through every circumstance in our lives
our testimonies become a beautifully constructed strand of Ebenezer’s. With each trauma and every painful season for
which we journey, our spiritual necklace adorns more and more beauty. Like the Add-a-Bead, season after season our
chains are added with the beautiful testimonies of how God saved…how He provided
and oh, how He loved. With so many painful seasons and so many
fearful times, our strand reminds me that when looking to God we have a strand
of three – the Holy Trinity. We do not
have to fear when going into the battles of our lives for we wear our Ebenezer’s
around our neck. We will not be left to
our own abilities but will be carried through the capable and loving arms of
our Father.
And one day we will exchange our strand on earth for the
Strand in Heaven and experience the face to face power of the Holy Trinity.
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