If you were to walk into my office right now, you'd wonder two things: 1) What tornado hit Springfield last night? and 2) What's with all the random stuff on your shelves?
To answer your first question, I'm in the process of re-arranging! That will be finished tomorrow. My response to your second question would simply be, "those items aren't random. They're ebenezers!"
In the church I grew up attending we would sing nothing but hymns. One of my favorite hymns is "Come thou fount of every blessing." When I was young it seemed weird singing, "Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I’m come..." I immediately think of Ebenezer Scrooge. Ebenezer was a funny name given to the uncle nobody liked. But as I got older I learned the meanings of the word ebenezer.
In 1 Samuel 7:12-13 we see that the word comes from the Bible. It says, "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." So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again."
An ebenezer is a monument-it's something to help you remember. In the passage of Numbers read today it's clear that Moses wants the people to remember God's saving them at passover. He wants them to remember! He has them do specific things, ritually, so that they can reflect on what it was like that day when they were filled with uncertainty and God came through. He wanted them to remember, and God wanted them to remember
So when you see the rock siting on a shelf in my office, you can know it serves as a reminder of the mountain I've climbed: twice. Or the picture of me in a dress-that's from when students went to Six Flags to celebrate a week of service at Mission Arlington! All those random things are my ebenezers, and they're invaluable in helping me remember God's goodness!
So may you become a collector of ebenezers. And when you see them, may you remember who God is and what he has done!
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