faithMile

By Katryna Starks

One day, about 10 years ago, I was in my bathroom getting ready to set about my day. I was trying to style my hair, and thinking about all of the things I needed to do. In the middle of my internal conversation, I thought to myself “I wish I had a bobby pin.” A few minutes later, I glanced at the floor. I had black, brown and beige shagged carpet. I could barely see anything on it (if I ever dropped an earring-back, it was gone.) But this day, as I glanced down, I saw a bobby pin. It was black and should have blended in with the carpet, but I saw it as clear as could be, as if it were floating on top. It was more than just a bobby pin. I felt it was God saying “If I will provide in this small way for you, then surely you can trust me with the big things.” From that day on, bobby pins became a small altar for me. Every time I see one, I remember that God provided, and that He has promised to provide.

The Bible is full of small altars that were built to remember the Lord. In Genesis, there are several mentions of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob stopping to build small altars in order to remember the Lord. In Genesis 12:6, Abraham builds an altar after hearing from God. In Genesis 26: 23-25, Isaac builds an altar when God confirms the family covenant with him. Jacob built an altar when he arrived safely in his own land after encountering Esau (Gen 33: 18-20).

God also used ordinary things as remembrances of Him. In Exodus, God instructed Aaron to save some manna in a jar so that the Israelites would remember how God provided. Later, in the book of Joshua (4:2-3), God commanded Joshua to have 12 men get stones from the dry ground of the Jordan river so that future generations would remember how God delivered Israel by parting the Jordan river.

It’s important that we have small altars – ordinary things we save or use to remind us of God’s protection and provision. These small altars are so prevalent in our lives that if we said a small prayer of thanksgiving every time we saw one, we would “pray without ceasing”(1 Thess 5:17).

When we remember to pray at small altars, God does big, amazing things.