A Memory Lapse

“So Joshua called together the twelve men he had chosen—one from each of the tribes of Israel. He told them, “Go into the middle of the Jordan, in front of the Ark of the Lord your God. Each of you must pick up one stone and carry it out on your shoulder—twelve stones in all, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. We will use these stones to build a memorial. In the future your children will ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a memorial among the people of Israel forever.” – Joshua 4:4-7.  

In the opening scene of the movie, Christopher Robin bids farewell to Winnie-the-Pooh. As they reflect on life and more, Christopher Robin muses that what he likes doing best is nothing. “It means just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering,” he tells Pooh. But he adds, wistfully, that he can’t do nothing anymore. The time has come. The boy makes the bear promise never, ever to forget him, even when they grow old. Pooh promises. As an adult, he forgets that promise. 

As an adult Christopher Robin is devoid of joy, giving everything to his work, working so many hours he has no time left for his wife and daughter. The fun-loving playful Christopher Robin of Hundred-Acre Wood seems a lifetime away. It comes to the point where he has a choice, to go with his family for a weekend away or return to the office to work on “reducing costs and cutting staff” for his manufacturing bosses. Work wins out and his family leaves for the country without him. His priorities are not what they should be so he does not focus on what is important today.   

In Joshua 3, we read of an amazing miracle God performed for His people. He caused the Jordan River to stop flowing so they could cross on dry ground into the Promised Land. God then instructed them, through Joshua, to gather twelve stones from the Jordan to set up as a memorial. One man from each tribe was selected to take a stone from the riverbed. Joshua set them up as a sign, as a remembrance, of what God accomplished for His people on that day. God knows that we have spiritual amnesia. He knows that we sometimes forget what is truly important. So He gives us memorials. God knows that when we forget what He’s done in the past, we begin to lose focus on the priorities of the present. We can forget what is important if we are fixated on what is not important. That is the time we need to stack some “spiritual stones” as a reminder of what is really important in our lives. Then set aside some time to remember those important things. 

Hopefully, this movie will remind us of the importance of family, the importance of today, and the importance of remembering what God has done in our lives; the moments He’s met us in our weakness, and showered us with strength. The times He’s brought clarity to our confusion, direction to our wandering, and peace to our fears. The more we acknowledge God’s footprints across our yesterdays, the more we will see His hand upon today and the less we will worry about the future 

Discussion Questions:

1. Is there something from our past that will help us in our present?
2. What can we do to remember the memorials – the things God has done and is doing in our lives?