On this day in 1888, the public was admitted to the Washington Monument for the first time.

At 555 feet high, the Washington Monument is one of the tallest masonry structures in the world, towering over everything in Washington, D.C. From the top you can see the Lincoln Memorial, the White House, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, and the Capitol building.

Washington, D.C. is filled with monuments, but just about every city and town has them. Some are huge, like the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, and some small, like roadside plaques.

Monuments and memorials remind us of important events and people. (We talked about this on Memorial Day.) At this stage in your life, memorials probably don’t mean as much as they will when you get older, but your parents may find some of them very moving. Monuments and memorials were important to God’s people in the Old Testament as well. After a great victory (or great tragedy), they would erect one so that the Israelites would never forget the event and the lessons learned. Today’s verse is a good example. These remembrances usually marked a spiritual occasion, helping everyone remember God and his great work among them.

We’ve gotten away from building spiritual memorials, so we find it easy to forget those times when God acted in a mighty way on our behalf. Maybe we ought to start that tradition again. For example, you may have a rock or shell from a camp, retreat, or vacation where you made an important decision. It sits on your shelf, reminding you of that special time. Photographs are great for this, as long as we have them out where we can see them. Keeping a journal or diary is another way of remembering what God has done. You can go back and read what you were feeling at a tough time in your life, and then weeks or months later see how God used that time for your growth.

Make a point of remembering God’s goodness and your special moments with him.

“Then you can tell them, ‘They remind us that the Jordan River stopped flowing when the Ark of the Lord’s covenant went across.’ These stones will stand as a permanent memorial among the people of Israel” (Joshua 4:7).

To Do

Think of a fitting memorial for when you accepted Christ as Savior. You might want to write the date, time, and place on a clean sheet of paper, decorate it, and put in on a bedroom wall.

Also on this day

This is Leif Erikson Day because on this day in 1002 Leif Erikson landed on North America.

1983—Helen Moss joined the Brownies at the age of 83. She became the oldest person to become a member.

From Betsy Schmitt and Dave Veerman, 365 Trivia Twist Devotions: An Almanac of Fun Facts and Spiritual Truth for Every Day of the Year (Cincinnati: Standard, 2005). Scripture quotations are from the New Living Translation unless otherwise noted.