My Ebenezer

Eb·en·e·zer –Hebrew word meaning “stone of help”

While reading Stones of Remembrance: a Tale of Three Rocks on the incourage page on Facebook, there was an invitation to write about important stones or rocks to the reader.

For approximately 25 years or so I have held, rubbed, stared at, a small, smooth, shiny stone.  It is precious to me, and in the event of a fire or other such calamity, i'd grab my pictures, and my stone. 

When my first husband left me for someone else, my life was launched into an unbelievably difficult and lonely time.  I knew poverty like I had never known.   Me and my children, when they were with me, could barely survive.  If you looked at the circumstances and facts, we shouldn't have.  But God.  I clung to the Lord with all my might.  I would wake in the night, reach over to "his" side of the bed, to find it empty, sending me reeling again.  So I put my Bible in that spot, and when that would happen, I would feel this lifeline beside me, turn on the lamp and spend some time in the Psalms.  God saved me through this.  His care preserved me and my babies.  During another reading, I came upon I Samuel 7:12, "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us."  So this little stone is my Ebenezer, that's what I call it.  It resides within eye-shot to ever remind me that He has never forsaken me, never left me and always provided.  Sometimes just barely, but He did.

Many know that my husband (another miracle) and I are just coming out of what I call The Wilderness Years.  Six long years of struggle, without steady employment and very little temporary.  We both love the Lord and that is what held us together.  We continued to seek Him through this hard time, and He was always there, and yet again, provided.  Sometimes through means we couldn't have dreamed of.  We have miracles during this time that I am in the process of chronicling.  Things out of nowhere, one special miracle that was quite simply a gift from the Lord which helped us literally survive with some kind of joy. 

So since 1989, all my life really, I have watched the Lord be faithful.  Faithful to me, a woman who began this unexpected journey and who did not react well at all.  My faith grew and grew as I watched us stay afloat, even barely.  The lessons learned will never be forgotten, ever.  But really, all lessons can be summed up in Isaiah 41:10, "Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand."  He is with me no matter what.

There have been many things that I don't understand.  All I know is He is with me, and for me, no matter what happens.  So I keep my Ebenezer close and when I hold or see it, I see so much more than a pretty stone.  Years and years of faithfulness from a God who "thus far has helped us."