Stone of Remembrance

Today "The Beast" came down. It actually started on Monday, it has been a three day process and actually I think they still have more to do tomorrow. We have watched the process all week long. I would drive by twice a day and take pictures of the work in progress. In some ways it was kind of sad to watch. It was a big ol' boy of a tree and if it had been in the back of the lot it would have made a wonderful tree house.

Today when we drove by they were cutting the last part down. We watched for a minute and then rushed home to get my camera. I had already told the boys that I was going to get out of the car and go ask for a piece of the wood. Braxton and I both think it is important to have "stones of remembrance." It is another way we can be intentional with our kids. We share with them that in the Bible when the Israelites were crossing the Jordan River that the Lord told Joshua to take 12 stones one for each tribe and place them on the other side as a way to remember all that the Lord had done for them. "And someday when your children ask you, what do these stones mean...you can tell them the Lord your God did..." Joshua 4:19-23.

I got out of the car and took a couple of pictures and then proceeded to walk up to the workers to ask for a piece of the tree. It is important to note here that they spoke very little English and I speak very little Spanish. I told the one who spoke the most, which was like 4 words that I knew he would think I was crazy but I would like a piece of wood to have as a memory because I was building a house on that lot and I wanted to be able to tell my children about it someday. As you can see that was way more than 4 words. I think he understood crazy and tree. I pointed and spoke a little louder, because that helps when there is a language barrier, and he finally got the picture. He reached over and gave me a piece of the wood. I smiled and said gracias, that is the one word I speak and went back to the car. I explained to my children how this piece of wood would serve as a reminder of one of the many ways God provided for us in Binghampton.

We then tried to count the rings on the piece to see if we could tell how old it was. We got to 57 and then it was too hard to see them. We came home and I put the piece of wood in my bedroom. About 4 hours later I walked in the bedroom to do something and smelled a foul odor. I mean foul! Did you know that wood stinks that bad? Oh my goodness, like major dirty diaper/wet dog bad. Not to mention that my mom said there were probably microscopic bugs living in my little "memory stone" and she could not believe I had even brought it in. So as of right now our stone of remembrance is sitting outside on the front porch. :)

Then Samuel took a stone and set it ... and named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." I Samuel 7:12