Stones Placed on the Calendar

I like to reminisce.

Whether it be from my childhood days of playing outside constantly, making puzzles, watching basketball, to my days in high school, which I strangely loved, to the days of today. I like to take a look back and “remember the good ole days.”

Then there are some days that I wouldn’t necessarily label “good”, but are days that I will always vividly remember, as each calendar year passes by. January 17 – my first open heart surgery. September 17, when we knew we lost the twins. And October 31 – the day I was flown via AeroMed, back to the University of Michigan hospital with life-threatening heart issues.

It seems like I just can’t seem to get past that moment. That timeframe. That date, out of my head. I replay the whole day over and over in my head, or what I remember of it, and I sometimes get stuck. It’s hard to imagine that it all happened, but that I sometimes feel like I am no further ahead heart failure-wise. It’s been a road.

But the more I reflect, study Scripture, work on another book, and continue to flip the calendar, I know that I have mentally placed stones on the calendar.

Say what? Stones on a calendar?

Indeed. There are days that are etched in my mind, as “memorial days,” where I have seen the hand of God in my life in powerful ways. And my prayer is that as life moves forward and I continue to flip the pages of the calendar, that I will proclaim what the “stones” mean, like it talks about in Joshua:

Joshua 4:4-7 says ~ So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, ⁵and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, ⁶to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ ⁷tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

I’m sure you have stones placed on the calendar on certain days as well. Days that have marked significant turning points in your life. Days, whether filled with celebration or grief, that have been filled with the power of God. His faithfulness. His providence. And even in the midst of darkness, yes, his goodness.

October 31 will always be that day for me. But as I look back on the years on this very day, I see pictures of Mazy pop up on my Facebook memories when she was 6 months old, and am reminded of the goodness and faithfulness of our God. Many emotions fill me, but I can’t help but look at the pictures of Mazy all costumed- up, and remember God’s sovereign plan. His plan is so much greater, my friend!

And so I will continue to put “stones” on my calendar. And it just so happened that this year, October 31, is sandwiched between two appointments in Ann Arbor – a calendar reminder of what happened 2 years ago. I even had a blood draw and had to go past the helicopter pad that I took off from. I believe God allows everything he does, for a reason. To help me remember the “memorial stones” of this day. It was no mistake, for I believe everything happens under God’s sovereignty. Even the littlest of details.

So what days have you placed stones on your calendar? What’s the significance of those dates? Where you have you placed “memorial stones” to remember what God has done? God has a purpose in everything he allows. And that’s why remembering where he’s been faithful, by casting those stones, helps us ALL see his grand plan come to fruition.