Pillars

I liked this quote about pillars in the Bible - both literal stone monuments, and the pillar of fire & cloud that the Israelites followed in the desert.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” 1 Samuel 7:12

"In your own life, there are, no doubt, “pillars” that point you backward, reminding you of what God has done before and what he can do again. You need that. Those are reassuring and give us the confidence to keep walking. 

By day the Lord went ahead of them in a pillar of cloud to guide them on their way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light  Exodus 13:21

"The pillar of fire, though, is scary. It points you onward, and, like your ancestors in their journey, it gives you only enough light to see just ahead. You will see that the light goes out into the wilderness with you, but often these times will feel to you confusing and disorienting. You will feel lost. Only in retrospect, if at all, will you see what God was doing. The temptation at the moment, though, will be to pitch the tent in place and look to the pillar of memory rather than to follow the pillar of glory. The light is there, though; the cloud is overhead. Moreover, this pillar of glory is not really a “thing,” but a person. Where it is pointing you to is the final New Jerusalem, which has “no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb” (Rev. 21:23). The Lamb is the Light. The pillar of fire and cloud still leads on."

~Russell Moore