Growing up, I was the kid who regularly got into trouble for reading way past my bedtime, complete with a flashlight under the covers. I could also be found carrying a bag everywhere so I could bring along at least two books... because you just never know! The only place I wasn’t allowed to bring reading materials other than the Bible was to church. My dad liked to remind me that I had 66 books right there – thanks, Dad!

Of course, as a 10-year-old, I didn’t think that was funny, so I would amuse myself by reading lyrics from the deep red hymnals in the pews. One of my favorite hymns, "Come Thou Fount," tripped me up when I came to the verse Here I raise my Ebenezer / Hither by thy help I come. What? My only context for “Ebenezer” was Ebenezer Scrooge from A Christmas Carol. At home, my dad helped me look it up and I learned that Ebenezer was a Hebrew word that meant “Stone of Help.”

A marker for remembrance, a place to memorialize the Lord’s salvation.

The Scriptures record the word Ebenezer for the first time in I Samuel 7 where the prophet Samuel raises a large rock as a marker to commemorate the Lord helping the Israelites defeat the Philistines. But this is not the first time that our Biblical forefathers set up a stone memorial to the Lord’s faithfulness and promises. Back in Genesis 28, after Jacob awakens from his heavenly staircase dream, he sets up a stone pillar, calling that place Bethel, or the House of God, exclaiming, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

An earlier lyric in "Come Thou Fount" goes like this: Praise the Mount, I’m fixed upon it / Mount of Thy Redeeming Love. It is so appropriate for this Lenten season. Calvary, where Jesus died, is our ultimate Ebenezer, our stone of help - the Mount we fix our eyes on as an everlasting reminder of where God’s love was spilled for us.

As we get closer to Easter and remember how Jesus has helped us overcome this world, take some time to think about the other Ebenezers that we should raise in our hearts. When you think about your life with Christ, what are the areas where you should have raised an Ebenezer? Where and how has God kept His promises to you?

I encourage you to give Him thanks as you bring these to mind and raise an Ebenezer – and instead of stones, write it down so you will remember.

God bless you!

Shireen