Stones of memorial: Learning to Remember God's Faithfulness

If you spend time walking in the hills or mountains, you’ll often come across piles of stones carefully balanced on top of one another. These cairns have traditionally served as way-markers: signs left behind to guide others along the path.

There seems to be something deeply human about marking important places and moments. We leave reminders behind because we do not want to forget. We want others to remember too.

In the Bible, people often set up stones or pillars as memorials to what God had done for them. These ‘stones of memorial’ were signs of gratitude, remembrance, and witness. They reminded future generations of God’s faithfulness and encouraged people to pause and give thanks.

Perhaps we need the same instinct today.

The Scriptures repeatedly call us to remember. The psalmist says, ‘I will remember the deeds of the Lord’ (Psalm 77:11), while Paul encourages believers to ‘always give thanks to God the Father for everything’ (Ephesians 5:20). In a busy and anxious world, we can easily move from one challenge to the next without stopping to recognise God’s presence and help along the way.

Jacob and the God of Bethel

The story of Jacob at Bethel is one of the clearest examples of this idea. Fleeing from his brother Esau, Jacob stops for the night and rests his head on a stone. While he sleeps, he dreams of a ladder reaching to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it. When he wakes, he realises that God has been present with him even in this lonely and uncertain place.

So Jacob takes the stone he had used as a pillow and sets it upright as a memorial, naming the place Bethel – ‘House of God’.

What is striking is that this moment is only one stage in Jacob’s spiritual journey. He still has much to learn. Years later, after reconciliation with Esau and significant personal growth, he returns to Bethel once again.

Many of us can probably identify similar ‘way-markers’ in our own lives: moments of answered prayer, times of change, experiences of God’s comfort, or significant turning points in faith. Baptism, conversion, recovery, reconciliation, or simply a quiet moment when we became aware that God was with us.

These moments matter because they help shape us. They become spiritual reference points to which we can return when faith feels difficult.

Crossing the Jordan

Another powerful example comes in Joshua chapter 4. After forty years in the wilderness, the Israelites cross the River Jordan into the Promised Land. Just as God had once parted the Red Sea for the previous generation, now he allows this new generation to cross the Jordan on dry ground.

God instructs Joshua to take twelve stones from the riverbed, one for each tribe of Israel, and set them up as a memorial at Gilgal.

These stones had two purposes. First, they reminded future generations of Israel what God had done. Parents were to tell their children the story behind the stones. Second, they served as a witness to the surrounding nations that God’s hand was at work among his people.

The same is true for us. When we speak about God’s faithfulness, when we give thanks openly, or quietly acknowledge his help, we strengthen both ourselves and those around us.

‘Thus far the Lord has helped us’

Perhaps the most moving memorial stone in the Old Testament is the one raised by Samuel after God delivers Israel from the Philistines. Samuel calls the stone ‘Ebenezer’, meaning “Stone of Help’, saying: ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us.’

There is something wonderfully humble and honest about that phrase. Samuel does not claim to understand everything about God’s ways or the future. He simply recognises God’s help up to this point.

That may be enough for us too.

We often wrestle with difficult questions about prayer, suffering, and why God sometimes seems silent. Yet those questions should not stop us from noticing the moments of grace we have received.

So perhaps we all need our own ‘stones of memorial’: moments where we pause and say, ‘Thus far the Lord has helped us.’