Building cairns

Walking

I took a day off from work and headed over to the Peak District with all the essentials for a day’s walking: waterproofs, map, compass, boots, food and drink and the dog. The plan was to walk from Castleton over Mam Tor, Hollins Cross and Lose Hill to Hope and then back along the river.

Along the route, there were several waymarkers in the form of signposts but also by the way of cairns. A cairn is an impermanent human-made pile of stones. The word “cairn” comes from a Gaelic term meaning “heap of stones.” Cairns are piles of rocks placed as markers to remember things. Sometimes to remember important events or placed as memorials to remember someone who had an association with a place. Most often though cairns are there to remind walkers of the way they should walk. They are placed along difficult to see paths or at the junctions of tracks where a walker needs to decide which way to go.

Navigation by cairns is like the way we navigate life.

Faith

There are gaps in the path markers Cairns do not tell you what path you are on they simply let you know that you are on the path, they do not necessary direct you. Still you follow them like a trail of breadcrumbs.

Community

The fascinating thing about cairns is although some are planned and concreted most are simply a collection of rocks made by repeated addition of single stones as people pass by. They are a real community effort. The flip side of that is if people stop adding rocks they can fade away over the years and the seasons. -

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The need for way markers

Waymarkers are important to walkers and ‘life way markers’ are important to us all. The COVID situation has caused lots of people to lose long-established markers in their lives. Weddings are cancelled, trips to the office do not happen, holidays aren’t taken and loved ones are not visited. I am so grateful that we have in-person services at the Vine Centre, despite reduced numbers, the wearing of masks and no singing. The weekly gathering together each Sunday, in person, is welcome way marker in the week. I have a friend who feels the same way about his weekly hockey training sessions, the importance of which is as much about the interaction with his team as it is ball skills and tactics.

Cairns mark places on out life journey.

They are places / events / traditions / practices that help form waymarkers in our an life. there are places in the bible where we see this happen, even where god commands stones to be piled. Now I am not for one moment suggesting we all get a delivery of rocks but we can still draw on recognising these events and places in our lives.

Acknowledge God

Genesis 22:9 NIV

9 When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood.

Abraham built this altar to acknowledge that God is God on his journey through his life, and he was saying through this cairn that he would obey God’s will. Of course, God would send an angel to stop Abraham from sacrificing his son. This event foreshadowed that God would sacrifice his own Son, Jesus, on the altar, the cairn, if you will, of the cross, which was erected on a rock hill called Golgotha.

Build in time to acknowledge God.

Recognise Gods provision and power

While in the middle of the parted Jordan River, God commands Joshua to choose twelve men from the twelve tribes of Israel. Each man must pick up a stone from the middle of the river and carry it over them.  Upon reaching the other side, God further commands them to put them down where they camp for the night. Joshua was to then assemble the twelve stones. 

Joshua said to the Israelites.... Joshua 4:21-24

Joshua 4:21–24 NIV

21 He said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their parents, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 22 tell them, ‘Israel crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ 23 For the Lord your God dried up the Jordan before you until you had crossed over. The Lord your God did to the Jordan what he had done to the Red Sea when he dried it up before us until we had crossed over. 24 He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.”

Their cairn will serve as an illustration to bring to memory the wondrous power and provision of God. God once again opened up the waters for Israel to safely cross! It is vital to remember the good and mighty ways of God, especially during storms. And a cairn provides a simple symbol to bring back memories. 

Another time a marker is placed to recognise the provision of God through others.

Though others.

Exodus 17:15 NIV

15 Moses built an altar and called it The Lord is my Banner.

Moses erected this altar to God after the Israelites defeated the army of Amalek.

This was the battle in which Aaron held up the tired arms of his brother Moses

Hand up - joshua winning / Hand down Amalek winning

when Moses could no longer hold his hands high in order that the power of God might allow the Israelites to prevail through the raised hands of the prophet. Therefore, Moses had much to be grateful for: the power of God made manifest through him, the victory of his people, and the help of his brother in his time of need. We have moments in our lives after making it through a trial or tragedy, when we, too, like Moses, need to step back and honour in some special way the God who got us through.

Make sure we recognise the places god has sustained us. Directly or indirectly - give thanks.

Spend time in Gods presence.

Genesis 28:18–19 NIV

18 Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. 19 He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.

The morning after Jacob had his dream of angels ascending and descending a stairway to heaven, he used the stone he used as a pillow to make a cairn that would announce to anyone who hiked by that this was a dwelling place of God. Jacob at the time was running for his life after stealing his brother’s birthright. But Jacob experienced through his dream that God was still merciful to him despite what he had done and was still with him. We in our lives need to remember, too, that though we are sinners, God still loves us and has a plan of salvation for us to take us to heaven to be with him forever.

Remember Gods promise to Keep you, to make you prosper, to be with you.

This is one of the most important markers I think any one can have in their lives. one tha we need to revisit often.

When I meet people that have described life events that are unfair even tragic. the thing that seems to be the turning point from coping and surrendering is when the fail to keep coming back to that truth that no matter what God is there, God loves them, despite the trials God is for them not against them, whatever they do God is not Angry at them.

If there is one way marker I would want to place on the path of everyones life, at a regular intervals it would be this one.

To remember to walk in a good path with your first love.

Almost everyone knows the story of the Ten Commandments. Moses climbs to the top of Mount Sinai and receives the commandments from God himself. While communing with God for 40 days and 40 nights unaware of the troubles happening down below.. In the short period Moses spent learning from God, the Israelites forgot their “first love.” They quickly fall into despair, neglected wise council, and shamefully worshiped a man-made golden calf. 

BUT… The story does not begin with Moses receiving the Ten Commandments. The story must begin even before he climbs up the mountain.

Let us begin in Exodus 24. Before Moses and Joshua climb Mount Sinai, Moses erects an alter of 12 pillars made of stone to represent the 12 tribes of Israel. Next, “he took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said…”

… “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient!” Exodus 24:7

As we know, in less than two months, the Israelites had indeed forgotten. While Moses was communing with God, the Israelites were partaking in savage sin. They did NOT do as the Lord had spoken and they were NOT obedient. The cairns did not achieve the purpose of helping the Israelites remember. Truly, we are fickle beings.  Even when presented with all the means to remain faithful, we fall short! Thankfully God’s mercies are new every morning!

These are just a few examples of where way markers, cairns are used to remember and guide in the Bible.

Acknowledge God.

Know he is for you and not against you - he loves you

Know that he is powerful and that he will provide and protect.

Spend time in his presence.

Moving through life following these cairn will make your journey easier.

There are gaps between the path markers. Like the Cairns do not tell you what path you are on they simply let you know that you are on the path, they do not necessary direct you.

On the hills if the path is not clear then someone will start a cairn, a few small stones. over time with repeated visits, another stone added the cairn builds, the gaps between the markers are reduced and the path becomes easier to follow - if that is not a metaphor for walking with God i am not sure what is.

Flip side - cairns can dissapear

non permanent.

can be eroded

can be dismantled.

Can be obscured.

Conclusion.

There are still a large number of people that through isolation, job loss, COVID restrictions or other circumstances do not have the access to regular social interactions, they are missing the life waymarkers.

Like the communal building of a cairn I wonder what would happen if, as individuals and as a community, we were all to take the effort to interact with our neighbours to help provide a marker in their lives to help them navigate these unprecedented times.

Your lives become the markers in theirs

If we don’t, like an abandoned cairn, I fear people will fade away.

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One of the important way markers we place in lives are when people set off for new things.

Matthew 28:16–20 NIV

16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”