Welcome.

A couple of years ago, my friend and I were discussing ways that we might make God real and personal for our kids. She mentioned the passage in Joshua 4 where God instructs the Israelites to create a pile of twelve stones that would serve as a memorial of what He had done for them.  The memorial was meant to provoke the children to ask questions so that the story of God’s intervention on behalf of the Israelites could be told.  Ultimately, this memorial served to establish a tradition of sharing God and his love with future generations.  As the years have gone by, I continued to mull over this idea.  I wondered how I could effectively build an altar that would prompt my kids to ask important questions.

Then while we were on vacation this summer, I kept noticing these piles of stones, one balanced on top of another.  At the top of a mountain in the Sequoias, I saw these precariously placed rocks.  Later, at the beach, these same carefully balanced towers stood on the shore. I remarked on them to my husband as I watched him bend down to pick up a stone and place it on the little mound.  "When you pass by, you're supposed to add your own stone," he informed me.  This idea was one that I haven't been able to forget.

Storytelling is such a powerful medium for teaching and learning, and there have been so many times when someone in my life has desperately needed a story.  Stories serve as a source of encouragement and demonstrate the tangible love of God.  In our stories, God is no longer a nebulous spirit who floats through the atmosphere, but an almighty Creator who cares for people and intervenes on their behalf.  In 1 Peter 3:15, we are called to “…always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”  Just as God called the Israelites to build a memorial that would require them to give an answer to their children, I have chosen this medium to record the answer for the hope that lies within me.

My greatest prayer is that this place might become an altar that is impossible to ignore.  May it be raised by a multitude so that all who pass by have no choice but to pause and examine this humble heap of rocks and recognize how desperately God desires to be present and real and involved in the lives of all who seek Him. Amen.  Feel free to cast your own stones on the heap.