Landmarks

Year 4-Day 36:  Today, I am grateful for landmarks.

I am participating in a scrapbooking challenge this month. We are given a prompt a day and the goal is to make on layout a day all month long.  I would like to be clear, I really do not have time for this.  Still, it is something I love and for me- it is an alternative to television time at the end of a long day. 

The prompt for today is "Landmarks". My first thought was "I've got a new gratitude"!  Then the Earworm...the one who sings the songs stuck in my head... started singing "New Attitude" in Patti LaBelle's voice:

"I'm feeling good from my hat to my shoe,
Know where I am going and I know what to do,
I've tidied up my point of view,
I've got a new attitude."

I correct Earworm...it is "gratitude" not "attitude"...but he keeps singing anyway, just changing the one word. Not a bad way to start the day. So...my new gratitude is landmarks.

What are the landmarks in our lives that remind us where we are from, where we are going to and what is important. I could probably spend a month on landmarks alone.  How do I choose? 

Perhaps, today is a good day to keep it general. To be grateful for the many landmarks that help us remember who we are, where we came from and where we have been.Landmark buildings, Ellis Island, art and even roads like the Historic Route 66 give us a sense of coming home...or belonging...even though we don't own them. The are "ours" as a culture and as a people. 

What landmarks are you grateful for today?  Which ones call to your heart? Which ones will you show to your children and tell their stories? 

A Biblical example comes from Joshua 4:5-9. After 40 years of wandering in the desert after fleeing slavery in Egypt, the people of Israel, led by Joshua, finally enter the land promised to them by God. What did God instruct them to do? Set up a landmark of stones.

And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, 6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of theLord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”8 And the people of Israel did just as Joshua commanded and took up twelve stones out of the midst of the Jordan, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, just as the Lord told Joshua. And they carried them over with them to the place where they lodged and laid them down there. 9 And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of the Jordan, in the place where the feet of the priests bearing the ark of the covenant had stood; and they are there to this day.

Landmarks matter.  Remembering not just who we are today...but our roots and our story. We can learn from the past...we often choose to repeat the mistakes of our fathers, but we have the ability to take a different path.

As they entered the promised land, God wanted His people to not forget he brought them out of slavery, their time of rebellion and struggle in the desert and His provision for their daily needs (daily manna, quail, stones that gave water and shoes that didn't wear out). He never abandoned them. Ever. He was faithful...even when they were not.  

It brings me back to Mufasa from the Lion King: "Never forget who you are".  

Today, I will spend some time thinking about landmarks. National, personal and spiritual. 

Today, I am grateful for landmarks.