Erecting Memorials For Your Children
Today’s reflection on #50daysto50 is about memorials. If you happen to miss any of the daily reflections, you can go to wendytwine.com/50daysto50.
This weekend is know as “Memorial Weekend” with “Memorial Day” being the last Monday of May in our country here in the United States. Many people see this weekend as a time of getting off of work, doing barbecues, spending time with friends and family and maybe even catching fireworks here and there.
Those who have served or have family members who have served in our military will think of it more than the above. Today though I want to talk about your own personal memorials that you have encountered. You may have something significant in your life that has happened and you may not think of it being important to create a memorial to share with your family and friends but you should. I have one that I will pull out from time to time to share with my family and friends when they need to be encouraged.
In my husband and I’s early marriage with our first born child, we had accumulated a hospital bill of nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Now let me remind you this was in 1985, nearly thirty years ago. That was a lot of money we didn’t have. We had state insurance and with grants from the children’s hospital also, we still ended up owing $20,000.00
Why am I telling you all this you may ask and what does this have to do with Memorials. Well let me take a little side step and tell you that God had the Israelites create memorials to remind them of what God had done for them. Just like what we do with our Memorial Day to remind us of what the men and women have done for us to give us our freedom in this country.
One particular story is in Joshua 4 of the Bible. In this story, God told Joshua to have the 12 tribal leaders to each get a stone to build a memorial when they had crossed the Jordan River. What was significant about this is that God held back the water in the river so that the Israelites could cross over on dry ground. The purpose of the memorial was to have the parents use it as a reminder on what God had done and to share it with their children.
Now back to my story about our hospital bill. When we got this bill, I was heart broken that we needed to pay this bill and didn’t have the money. On top of that, it would be a constant reminder every month on paying the bill of what we didn’t have. You see our first born son had died after four months of age. He battled for his life and couldn’t fight any longer after his surgery.
I set up the monthly payments of $20/month and paid the first month feeling like I had been cheated to have to pay this bill and yet not even get a baby out of it. I’m just being real here. But then God!!!!! The next month I called the hospital to get an account number to put on our checks so they would know what account to accredit it to.
When they put me on hold, they came back after some time telling me that our account had been paid in full. I responded and said are you sure and they said yes. I was elated and I still have to this day a copy of that hospital bill in the back of our son’s album. This is our memorial of what God has done for us.
What memorial do you have to create to share of what God has done for you to share with other? Please share below.
