I now live in a beautiful part of the world and I love to absorb the environment around me, especially as we travel. As we were driving around the Yorke Peninsula a year or two ago I was struck by a sight that I saw repeated over and over again. It mystified me as I observed the similarity and variety of the same thing.

In paddock after field there were dotted all over the countryside remnants of farmhouses and buildings from a bygone era. I found them incredibly intriguing and beautiful and they captured my imagination as I tried to picture them in their former glory.

Some of these buildings would have been previous residences of the families that worked the land. Others would have been storehouses for machinery and farm equipment, possibly even livestock. Their exterior walls were plain, yet lovely and the footprint of these past residences was significantly smaller than what would be standard of today’s expectations.

Often you could see the newer, more modern replacement structures close by, almost in the shadow of the original. In other fields, there seemed no other signs of life anywhere near what was once a site of activity.

These beautiful sandstone structures were almost always without a roof, which would have been wooden. It seemed to me that the elements more easily absorbed the roofing materials than the stone walls. Some of the buildings were almost consumed by greenery growing in, through and round the walls, and yet they stubbornly remained standing as a monument to they life they once had.

I kept wondering why they were left there and not completely demolished. Why leave a skeleton that can’t be used for any purpose any longer? I wondered about the lives it once sheltered and the special things they used to make this building a ‘home’.

I wondered about the circumstances that left these structures abandoned as they were. Did it mean fortune had provided an upgrade? Or misfortune had removed them from the site altogether?

I was then reflecting on the fact that the parts of these buildings that remained were made of stone and many, many times in the Old Testament. when God did something amazing or significant the person would symbolise it with a stone structure. (Check out Genesis 35:9-15; Exodus 24:1-4; Joshua 4:19-24 just to name a few.)

This was not an elaborate, inhabitable building, but a monument large enough to be a reminder or a reason for curiosity. This would be a prompt to recall the time when God ‘showed up’ and the lesson remembered and enthusiasm for the faith rekindled.

If those that knew the story were doing their job correctly, the meaning of particular altars would be known by many and help enlighten others to the truth of a mighty God we worship. They would be passed down from one generation to the next so that the significance would never be lost or forgotten.

I have spent some time reflecting on those ‘God moments’ for me along my journey with Him and what I may have chosen to erect to commemorate that interaction. Not just for my own benefit, but for those who may come along after me.

This is not about making a shrine that can never be altered or adapted, but something of substance that can stand the tests of time and circumstance. It is also about sharing my story so that others can pass the lessons along, and I now wonder if the practice of sharing my written thoughts is not also a part of leaving that legacy?

I am still turning these thoughts over in my head, but feel blessed as I recall and remember God’s goodness to me, His provision, His reprimands and His direction. May those who follow after me be drawn closer to Him also.

Be blessed.