A Pile of Rocks

Josh 4:21,22,24 "When your children ask their fathers in time to come, saying, 'What are these stones' then you shall let you children know saying, 'Israel crossed over this Jordan on dry land'...that all the peoples of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever."

What are we doing, as Dad's, that make our kids ask questions about our faith?

God had a plan for Joshua to share with the people…build an altar of twelve stones. I am sure that these stones were not little pebbles that twelve guys from each tribe picked up and placed in a pile. They were big rocks that they had to put on their shoulders to carry. It is not indicated how the rocks were arranged, but I think that Joshua set them up to look like a pyramid, because he "set up" these rocks. They were to be a reminder. They were to be a testimony. They were to be a prompter of questions. The questions would come from the kids who were not yet born. When they saw the pile of rocks they would ask the question: "What are these stones?" The answer: "God worked…". The result of the answer: "All the people of the earth may know the hand of the Lord, that it is mighty, that you may fear the Lord your God forever." Dad's prompting their kid's to ask questions. The answer to the question brings the reality of God into children's lives and has far reaching consequences throughout the entire earth.

I wonder what happened to that pile of rocks? I wonder if the children's questions eventually stopped? I wonder how this affected our world?

Back to my original question: What are we doing, as Dad's, that make our kids ask questions about our faith? Are we setting up any pillars? Do we have any signposts? Is there anything that we are doing or that we have done where our kids look and say: "Why?"

This is a challenge to me: When God works, establish a memorial. When I see the mighty hand of God at work, create something. It might be a pile of rocks. It might be a tree that is planted. It might be a plaque that is put up. It might be a letter that is written. The point: When God works, do something visible so that my kids and my grandkids can ask: "Why did you do that?" When they ask, I can tell them the about the mighty hand of God so they can tell their kids and they can tell their kids…so the world will know.