As we saw in the July 3 post, Hagar was the first person in Scripture recorded as giving God a name.
Sarah, having second thoughts about her arrangement to have Hagar carry Abraham’s child, had sent her away. She was alone, pregnant, afraid, and running into the wilderness.
God met her there.
She called Him El Roi, “the God who sees me.” And she named the well Beer-lahai-roi because she never wanted to forget what had happened there.
We see it often throughout the book of Genesis.
Abraham names a mountain because God provided. Jacob names a place because he wrestled with God.
Again and again, ordinary places become reminders of an extraordinary God.
Maybe we don’t build stone altars or rename places anymore, but we still need ways of remembering.
Maybe you are the journalling type, or you like to celebrate the anniversary of important events.
Whatever your method, it’s important to tell the story.
Don’t let God’s faithfulness become something you vaguely remember.
For me, a very significant place is Camp des Bouleaux
It was there, as a ten-year-old at summer camp, that the gospel first became real to me. Someone encouraged me to write down that moment in my Bible so I would remember it when doubts came. It was June 30, 1988.
It was also at Camp des Bouleaux that God shaped my love for leading, teaching, and encouraging others as I worked there during the summer through my adolescent years.
It was there that I sensed His call into ministry.
And years later, after I had walked away from my faith, it was there again, sitting quietly by my campfire in July 2023, that God gently drew me back to him and renewed my faith. I am sitting in that same spot this morning as I write.
When I think of Camp des Bouleaux, I don’t just remember a place. I remember who God has been to me here.
What about you?
Do you have a place, a moment, or even a date that reminds you of God’s faithfulness?
Don’t lose it.
Name that spot.