Friday, March 28, 2025
Joshua 4:19-24, NIV
On the tenth day of the first month the people went up from the Jordan and camped at Gilgal on the eastern border of Jericho. 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.”
Reflection - Pastor Caroline Bashore, First UCC, Royersford and Linfield UCC
Before the Bible was written down, faith was carried in the voices of storytellers. Around fires and dinner tables, under starry skies, and in the hush of sacred gatherings, stories were passed from one heart to another. They weren’t just words—they were identity, history, and truth woven into memory.
I come from a family of storytellers. My grandfather’s tales of the gnomes who lived in the woods around his house, Uncle Len’s dramatic stories of inclement weather from hunting in the pouring rain to pants soaking up the slushy snow upon sitting, and Dad’s run-ins with snakes that seemed to grow by a few inches with each telling—each story was told with so much joy, a knowing grin at their mischief, a little piece of them shared in each carefully chosen word and staged hand gesture. They may be gone, but their stories? They live on. Because that’s the power of a well-told tale—it stays with you.
Faith is no different. It is passed down in the stories we share, the testimonies we tell, the moments we share, “This is who God is. This is what God has done.”
We are invited to remember the stories—of our own faith, of those who came before us, of the God who has always been at work. And it challenges us to keep telling them. Because long after we’re gone, our words, our witness, our love for Christ will live on in the hearts of those who hear our stories and make them their own.
God of generations, help us cherish the stories of faith and give us the courage to pass them on. Amen.
Comentarios