Stones, Scars, and Squirrels: Entering the New Year
I’d tell you my New Year’s resolutions, but I honestly can’t remember where I put the list. Yesterday, I walked into the kitchen with a very specific purpose, stood in front of the fridge for three minutes, and eventually realized I was just staring at a magnetic cut out of Ecuador. If our brains were web browsers, mine would have 38 tabs open, 6 are frozen, and I have no idea where that crazy music is coming from.
We are a forgetful people. We forget why we walked into rooms, we forget where we parked, we forget where we’ve been, and—more importantly—we forget the faithfulness of God the moment we face new challenges.
The Squirrel Dilemma
Being forgetful is a bit like being a squirrel. I watched one in the woods recently. He had an acorn. A glorious, prize-winning acorn. He started digging a hole with high-intensity focus, but then a leaf blew a few inches to the left. He froze. He looked at the leaf. He looked at the sky. He did a little twirl, forgot about the acorn entirely, and sprinted up a tree to yell at a bird. I strangely identify with him on a mental level.
We do that with our spiritual lives. God provides a blessing, a breakthrough, a moment of peace and two days into January, a “leaf” blows by (usually in the form of a bill or a bad day), and we’ve completely forgotten that God just parted a whole sea for us. Jericho should be a cinch but we lose focus.
Remembering Whose You Are
In the book of Joshua, the Israelites were standing at the edge of the Promised Land. They had just crossed the Jordan River on dry ground—another massive miracle. But God knew their “squirrel-mentality” tendencies.
First, Joshua told them to pick up twelve stones from the middle of the riverbed and set them up as a monument of remembrance. It was a visual “hey you, remember this!” so that when their kids asked about the pile of rocks, they could tell the story of God’s miracle power.
But God took it a step further. Before they took the land, He had them perform circumcision. Now, that’s a heavy price for a “reminder,” but it served an important purpose. “The stones were to be placed to help them to remember what God had done, but the circumcision was to help them remember who they were and who they belonged to.” Wink* Thanks Max Lucado for this reminder.
One was an external sign; the other was an internal, physical mark. We need both. We need the “stones” (the journals, the gratitudes, the stories) to track God’s hand, and we need the “mark” (the surrender of our hearts) to remind us that we aren’t our own and that we’ve been bought with a heavy price, namely, the blood of Christ.
Look Forward
As we step into this new year, don’t just focus on what you want to do. Focus on what God has already done. We just watched “The Chronicles of Narnia” yesterday. At the end of the series Reepicheep heads over the wave to Aslan’s country. It served as a reminder that better days are ahead. C.S. Lewis once wisely said:
“There are far, far better things ahead than any we leave behind.”
The “better things” aren’t necessarily easier circumstances; they are deeper realizations of God’s presence. That realization is found in His Word, in prayer and in remembering His victories in our lives. This year, let’s try to be a little less like the distracted squirrel and a little more like Joshua—building monuments of praise in our hearts so we don’t forget the One who brought us across the river and to the promised land!
Stack some stones in 2026!