Cairns

We recently took a vacation to the New England area and stayed in Vermont near the base of Mount Mansfield.  It's a beautiful mountain and the tallest in Vermont.  We drove up to the top and then hiked several miles from the parking lot to the peak, then back again.  These markers, or "cairn" as they are called (pronounced kern), helped mark our path.  They also had these little lines placed along paths you could take to the peak as you hiked.  We stayed on the white path, but there was also blue.
  These markers kept us on track.  We looked for them as we were walking, and noticed immediately if we were following the wrong marker.  The blue path was much more difficult and closer to the edge than I wanted to be, so I was always making sure I was following the white line.  If we went a little distance without seeing one, we would immediately stop and start looking.  There was even one time the white line went a little too close to the edge and I decided to move away from it.
These cairns parallel so closely the Lord's presence and direction in my life. How often I have stayed on path and looked for His direction, and how many times I have drifted away.  Sometimes, like on my hike, I deliberately kept away from His direction for fear of what it may hold.
Cairn's are also used as markers in life.  That what this blog is for me.  It's a way of remembering what God has done in our lives.  It's so easy to forget, so it's important to write things down; to remember.
God instructed His people to use cairns when they crossed over into the promised land.  He instructed Joshua to appoint 12 men, each from the tribes of Israel, to take a stone from the middle of the Jordan river they had just crossed.  Joshua placed them together at the place where the priests who had carried the ark had stood.  These stones were used as a memorial to what God had done.
I love that!  How quickly we forget!  And how important it is to remember - in what ever way we can - that God is faithful.