You know that hymn, Come Thou Fount? It’s a beautiful hymn from the mid-1700s that we still sing because the lyrics provide comfort and sing praise to God. The second verse starts like this:

Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I’ve come.

Ebenezer means “stone of help” in Hebrew, and it is referenced in scripture in Samuel 7:12 when the Israelites built a monument to honor God for helping them get through a rough time. The monument was to praise God and honor the fact that God was their rock. He alone got them through tough times. The Ebenezer is a reminder of the place they felt God’s love and grace.

At Lakeshore, campers make Ebenezers. You may have seen them all over property and not known what they were. In the craft hut, campers have the opportunity to paint a rock and personalize it, so that it represents them and their time at camp. When the rock is finished, they take their Ebenezer to a spot on camp property where they saw God. This spot is a piece of holy ground that was the site of a meaningful moment of God’s love and presence.

God is ever at work here. Ebenezers to Him scatter the property. Even more than the rocks that represent them are the memories and life-changing moments that change God from a character in a Sunday School story to a living God who wants to know His children personally.

Next time you are at Lakeshore, pick a rock and pray for the camper who put it there. Pray for their spiritual journey and that they have a supportive community for their walk with Christ. Also, pray a prayer of praise and thanksgiving that we serve a God who is so interested in knowing us, that He will create personal moments with each of us. Be thankful that He is our stone of help, our Ebenezer, and that His grace and love poured out on us all is strong and steadfast.

I’ll praise the mount I’m fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love.