T-Shirt Memories

Today I'm staining the deck on the parsonage and I have to pick one of my T-Shirts to ruin in a sacrifice to the painting gods. But I can't decide which one.

I have an entire dresser drawer full of T-Shirts.

There's all the Vacation Bible School shirts I made over the years. Camp White shirts for each year I went to serve the developmentally disabled. The "Sticks and Stones" 77s shirt I bought at Cornerstone Music festival in 1990. Two Charlie Peacock shirts, created before he ever made a name for himself as a Nashville producer. The Sun Ra shirt I bought in Columbus, Ohio after seeing the uniquely odd jazz pianist in the late 80's. The Suicide Trail Run shirts for each I ran the local 5k race.

Each shirt is a story--a memory. How can I just pick one and ruin it?

In Joshua 4, after God had miraculously led the people of Israel across the Jordon River, God told Joshua:

Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan...Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, 'What do these stones mean?' tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever."

If God was giving this command today, he might have said, "Print a T-shirt for everyone."