The Lord had said to Joshua, “Command the priests carrying the Ark of the Covenant to come up out of the riverbed.” So Joshua gave the command. As soon as the priests carrying the Ark of the Lord’s Covenant came up out of the riverbed and their feet were on high ground, the water of the Jordan returned and overflowed its banks as before. The people crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. Then they camped at Gilgal just east of Jericho. It was there at Gilgal that Joshua piled up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan River. Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.” Joshua 4:15-22
I am a Christian mom blessed with an adoring husband of 18 years and three beautiful children ages 17, 16, and 14. If you are raising teenagers, this alone should paint a picture about what my life entails during this season of parenting. The joys far outweigh the challenges – at least on most days. And on the days that I rhetorically wonder what God was thinking when He put me in charge of three kids, He always provides quick assurance. He reminds me my children are really His, after all, and that everything will be fine if I just put my Trust in Him and let Him navigate the ship. I am learning to let go…
My journey of faith has been amazing and the ways God has worked in my life are numerous, profound, wonder-filled, and humbling. My spiritual growth really manifested itself when I married my husband, John, in 1993 and then flourished after taking a Bible Study called Believing Godby Beth Moore back in 2004. It was during this study that I learned about Gilgal and the profound meaning it would have in my life and in the lives of whom I love.
The biblical story surrounding Gilgal is that it’s a location that exists two miles northeast of Jericho and is where Joshua set up camp in the Promised Land after leading the Israelites across the miraculously dry Jordan River. This marked the end of a forty-year season of wandering in the wilderness. Representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel carried twelve stones out of the riverbed and constructed a circle of stones memorial in Gilgal as a remembrance of God’s deliverance in their lives. Gilgal historically means two things in the Hebrew text: “to come full circle” and a place where God “rolled away the reproach” of Egypt. And the Israelites of this generation came full circle in receiving God’s deliverance. The generation of people before them, whom Moses led out of an oppressive Egypt, was ungrateful for their freedom and grew impatient in anticipating their arrival in the Promised Land. God took great offense towards their selfishness and they paid for it with their lives, leaving their descendants to learn the lesson of patience, humility and obedience.
The Shelby story of Gilgal is that it represents a sacred “place in my heart” where I can recall how God has orchestrated my personal journey out of Egypt, through the wilderness and beyond the Jordan. God has led me across the Jordan on dry ground many times as I have rounded the bend in coming full circle in areas of my life that needed His healing and redemption. He has also allowed me to wander around the wilderness many times as a reminder of my unrepentant sinfulness. My journey to Gilgal is an accounting of how God used my husband, John, as a twenty-first century Moses, Joshua, and Boaz in my life. It is a testament to my three beautiful children that God entrusted me with–under the guise of His sneaky little plan of placing three authentic, courageous, faithful and blisteringly truthful teachers of His divinity under my roof who have set me straight on more than a hundred occasions.
Thank goodness God’s patience has not yet run out on me, because I can’t count the number of times I have been ungrateful for my many blessings. But each time I have failed in my humanity, I have done my best to clear my head, take “me” out of the equation, and make amends. The reward of obedience in my life has been countless Gilgal experiences given to me by a loving God…moments of deliverance, times when I can see clearly that He has brought me full circle in an area that needed restoring, healing, redemption, and renewed hope.
So this will be a place for us to share our Gilgal Moments and remember all the wondrous ways God works in all of our lives. I pray that all of you come full circle in some area of your life as we head into 2012. Expect deliverance…God never disappoints!
Blessings -
Beautiful, Shelby!! I enjoyed these moments of learning a little bit about you and your walk. So glad you’re sharing both with a watching world.