Seeing the Sacred: God's Presence in Every SeasonSample

Day 4: Marking in the Moment

In Joshua’s time, the Israelites used stones to mark significant moments where they experienced God’s faithfulness. These stones, or memorials, were not only for them but for generations to come. We can learn from them, as we seek to cultivate awareness, to lay down markers in the moment.

Marking in the moment is important because it forces us to remain in the present and allows us to see God’s presence in real-time, rather than just in hindsight. While much of our awareness and reflection come after the season has ended, there’s something about recognizing and acknowledging God’s presence as it’s happening. Marking in the moment doesn’t just anchor us in the present. It also deepens our gratitude when we would normally be quickly moving on to the next season without appreciating the current one.

And this doesn’t just apply to the seasons we’ve labeled as “good.” In seasons of hardship, adversity, and disappointment, when prayers still have not been answered, and when the outcome we expected doesn’t happen, marking in the moment is just as if not more vital. It’s when we’re least likely to notice him that His presence is most felt. These markers let us know that He isn’t just with us when we get our way, but He’s with us through it all. Even during seasons we feel He has abandoned us.

As children, we trust easily. Our hearts are open. We believe without hesitation and trust without questioning. However, as we grow older, life and its range of experiences settle in. The more we live, the more we encounter disappointments, betrayals, and hardships. As a result, we build walls around our hearts to protect ourselves from further pain, but we don’t always realize that these walls can also hinder us from seeing God's presence.

By intentionally marking moments of God's faithfulness along our respective journeys, we can remind ourselves that God is with us, even when life makes it difficult to see. These spiritual reminders can help us maintain childlike faith.Faith that just keeps going. Nevertheless. Come-what-may kind of faith.

It’s important to note that your markers, your stones, won’t always be indicative of God’s actions as much as they will be proof that you believed. Trusted. Hoped. Sometimes, the act of marking a moment is an expression of your faith, a declaration that you are choosing to trust that He is with you and will be faithful to His promises, even it’s difficult to see.

Reflection:

1. What stones have you laid in the past?
2. What will your marker, your stone, be for this season?

Blessing:

May the stones you lay

Testify of God’s faithfulness

And be a reminder to you that you believed.