As Kathleen and I watch our two married sons and their lovely wives consider future pathways, we are struck anew by God’s providence by which he is directing their steps in unpredictable, gracious, and remarkable ways. We – and they – are keenly aware that their “small” stories are integrally connected to God’s BIG story, and that God has seen fit throughout human history to compose his big story through the millions of small stories in which individuals and families and places and communities play their appointed roles. Most of the situations and episodes of those stories are what we would call ordinary rather than extraordinary: people living their daily lives, making mostly little decisions, learning, failing and succeeding, moving, changing jobs, getting married, having children, living in neighborhoods, participating in local churches, and on and on. And yet, in the mostly mundane details of life, God is fulfilling his cosmic purpose to bring all things into perfect unity under one Head, through the powerful gospel of Jesus Christ.

In the early chapters of the book of Joshua, we read of the gathering of God’s people as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. This was a “new” generation, most born during the forty years of wandering in the wilderness, having buried their parents along with Moses, and now pushing into the land under Joshua’s ordained leadership. They faced an unknown and somewhat terrifying territory, filled as it was with powerful enemies and the possibility of disaster and death.

Our sons and daughters-in-law, and all the younger folks in this rising generation, many of whom we serve at Covenant College, face a similarly unknown and somewhat terrifying future, with global military strife, the proliferation of nuclear arms, continuing economic uncertainty, interfaith tensions, and increasing threats to religious and civil liberties.

As I type this, I’m returning from a week of camping and horseback-riding in the Bridger-Teton National Forest, which abuts both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks. It’s a mountainous region, filled with steep slopes, chilly streams, muddy bogs, fallen trees—and grizzly bears! For an inexperienced horseman, just staying on the horse on flat ground was intimidating enough. But to ride along narrow trails on the sheer sides of mountains, to hang on as my horse leapt across a stream or stumbled over a hidden stump – and then to crawl into my sleeping bag in the tent with the happy prospect of bears or wolves roaming just outside – well, I suppose I experienced a kind of living metaphor of what those folks standing by the Jordan River felt—and what, in a very real sense, every generation feels—as they looked forward with that inevitable mixture of excitement and dread.

In Joshua 5, having crossed the Jordan River and with enemies and dangers ahead, Joshua and God’s people obey God’s gracious instructions for those two ceremonies which (1) identified them as his chosen people and himself as their God (circumcision), and (2) reminded them of his powerful rescue – his redemption – from captivity in Egypt (Passover).

What a blessing for that generation, in the face of the uncertain and frightening future: to know by God’s gracious Word, visualized in these sacramental acts, that they were sovereignly his and that he was their sovereign Redeemer. For us as God’s people, with the full revelation of the Scriptures, we have the amazing privilege of this same gracious blessing, as we participate in the celebration of our identity as members of God’s family (through baptism) and as recipients of his salvation (through the Lord’s Supper). These sacraments shout out, in a kind of words that we can actually see and touch and taste, who we are and who our God is, in every generation, no matter how problematic the circumstances.

The chapter closes with that remarkable encounter of Joshua with the Commander of the Lord’s army – surely an appearance of the Second Person of the Godhead standing before Joshua with his sword drawn – who has come and who commands Joshua to take off his sandals for he is standing on holy ground. For those of us who belong to God and who are redeemed by God, there is not one spot on the face of the earth – not one circumstance or situation in life – that is not holy ground – the place where our Savior and Lord Jesus Christ rules in his holy might and holy mercy and where we are bound by his gracious call to worship and obey.

So, as our sons and daughters-in-law – and all this rising generation – stand in their respective spots in space and time, and as they peer into the uncertain years ahead, the story of Joshua 5 reminds them who they are – they are the sovereignly chosen people of the sovereign Lord God of the universe who will be with them wherever they go; and they are members of his redeemed people, whose sins are taken away by the blood of the cross and who are nourished continually by his grace in and through Jesus Christ.

Because that is who they are and because that is what God has done, any place is holy ground. May they – and we – never fear the enemies and troubles ahead, because Jesus Christ is the Commander of the Lord’s army, and he has come! And may they — and we — never forget that our stories, through joy and sorrow and triumph and trial, providentially participate in the grand, cosmic story of God’s sure fulfilling of his glorious purpose to reconcile all things to himself through Jesus Christ.