Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’m come. And I hope by Thy good pleasure, Safely to arrive at home. (from the old hymn, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing)
Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and named it Ebenezer . . . (The Bible)
This morning on the beach, I was playing with building cairns with the few rocks and shells I could find. Cairns have always intrigued me, not just because of their beauty and sometimes strangeness and whimsey, but because they seem to be such rich symbols of something unnamable.
My sister and I frequently drive up into the mountains and collect stones and river rocks from the crumbled foundations of my grandmother’s home. The cairns we build with them dot the farm, small stone towers, balanced precariously, and yet somehow standing firm through wind and weather and machine and animal incursions. As I pass by them, they never fail to touch me deeply, and I’m never quite sure why. But I think it has to do with that lovely line quoted above: Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I’ve come.
Symbols have always been used to transcend language and culture and to communicate volumes with one simple icon. The stone marker known as a cairn seems to be a symbol written on our hearts and deep within the collective consciousness. These stone way-markers are present on every continent and in societies around the globe from the native peoples of northern Canada, the high Himalayas, to Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. They are referred to in ancient texts, and we continue today to marvel at the Stonehenge mysteries, as well as other such “standing stones.”
Cairns are often used to mark summits and guide hikers, to pass along to others what we have learned about the way, the path, the trail. They represent accomplishments, knowledge, experience gained, difficulties overcome, and sanctuary and guidance for pathways yet to be traveled. They are both a tribute to honor one’s journey, and to point the way for others.
The beauty of the cairn lies in the balancing of the rocks. And perhaps in taking the time and effort to gather the stones, and balance the rocks, we are affirming the sacredness of each individual life, of our life, no matter how ordinary it may seem — “This is who I am, this is my story.” Raising our “Ebenezer” is an act of love and reverence not only for the story of our own journey, but a symbol as well of our commitment to further the journey of others.
We each have a precious life to live, a story to write, a journey to take; no one can write it or take it for us. And each of our personal stories moves through us, creating history, and inviting futures. Your story is the one story worth the telling. Whatever it may mean to you, build your cairn, raise your Ebenezer!
Your story matters.
