Perhaps you’ve heard the term “ebenezer” before – maybe it makes you think of a certain Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge, or it calls to mind a melody from a familiar hymn, or, if you’re a student of the Old Testament you might recall in 1 Samuel 7:12 that Samuel sets up a stone and calls it “ebenezer.” The word comes from a Hebrew phrase that translates as “stone of help.” Samuel raises up this ebenezer following a battle with Israel’s enemy the Philistines, in which God shows up in a mighty way and gives Israel the victory. Samuel’s response is to mark the significance of God’s intervention in His people’s lives so that they will have a physical reminder of what God had done for them.
People are natural forgetters. I’m not just talking about running out to the store and forgetting to pick up that gallon of milk – I’m talking about how we look at that new (appliance, car, house, shirt, video game…) and complain about how we don’t have that when the reality is we just got a new (appliance, car, house, shirt, video game…), but we are so quickly distracted that we forget the good things we have and long for that which we don’t possess.
So, in light of my own forgetfulness, my hope in starting this blog is that my husband and I can write of the good gifts that we’ve been given, the battles that have been won, the seasons of plenty as well as the seasons of want, and that we (and our friends, and whatever other random souls searching the blogosphere) can be reminded of the goodness of our God. So that we can look back and note the major battles as well as the mundane mercies that are showered upon us day by day.
Here I raise my ebenezer, hither by thy help I’ve come, and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at *home*….
Until then, may we remember that it’s only by His help we’ve come this far, and His help never fails, never runs out, never errs, never forgets.