Mercy Milestones
Seek a suitable time for thy meditation and think frequently of the mercies of God to thee.
– Thomas À Kempis
Over 15 years ago, I began the discipline of practicing the presence of God. I found a quiet place in my house where I regularly sat quietly, lit my candles, and practiced knowing God’s presence. While I did practice stillness, I also incorporated prayer journalling, reading, meditating, and drawing. During these times when ideas, phrases, or concepts felt fundamentally true, I would jot them down on a post-it note and place the notes on the side of a bookshelf next to my chair. These milestones of mercy mark a time when God met me, whether it was a time of a great crisis, a simple time of curiosity, or a hard time of confusion. As Christians, we have a surplus of biblical stories where folks faced impossible circumstances from a grand to an intimate scale.
After the miracle of passing through the Red Sea and having the Egyptians permanently removed as a threat, the Israelites marked the moment with the song of Moses (Exodus 15, ESV). Milestone.
After Abraham faced the sacrifice of his son, he named the place, “the LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day (Genesis 22:14, ESV). Milestone.
After Rachel died, “Jacob set up a pillar over her tomb. It is the pillar of Rachel’s tomb, which is there to this day (Genesis 35:40, ESV). Milestone.
During the miraculous Jordan river crossing, one elder from each tribe was instructed to take a stone from the riverbed and bring it across to the other side.
And Joshua set up at Gilgal the twelve stones they had taken out of the Jordan. He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”
(Joshua 4:20-24, NIV)
Milestone.
We mark milestones all the time, birthdays, anniversaries, holidays, graduations, marriages, and more. We talk about those milestones.
Remember that family vacation!
Remember that surprise party we pulled off!
Remember when we were all sick at Christmas and enjoyed the whole day!
Remembering is an essential part of our journey as humans. Our memories or milestones tell us where we have been, who we are, what we value, where we are, what we can know, and often where we want to go.
Milestones that mark the mercy of God are essential to remember. We have a good size book that identifies milestones of others that have walked this life with God. These are helpful and worthy of spending time on. I might offer that knowing that we have personal milestones worthy of remembering can be helpful.
Somewhere in the last 15 years, one of the mercy milestones that emerged for me was the following quote,
If you mind the darkness, it will feed thee more; but stand still and act not and wait in patience until the light of Christ arises to lead thee.”
James Mayer
This quote spoke to me at a time of wrestling when God met me and brought clarity. It is on my wall of mercy milestones. It is a regular reminder to wait on Christ. This is a great reminder for me when I want to set something right when I need to let Christ handle it. It reminds me that light is coming in the darkness that seems unending. It reminds me that I have a God who met me at my Jordan River, and it was there that I piled up some rocks.