I bought a birthday banner for our growing young sons.  Little did I know I would be using it for many years, first for our sons and now their families, including grandchildren and one great-grand.  I have taped the banner to the wall many times. Needless to say, the banner is frayed and faded but I just can’t throw it away.  It has become a tradition in our house and the occasion is not the same without it. The “Happy Birthday” banner is a symbol of love, leaving precious memories. To me it is the “banner” of our family and represents loyalty, unconditional love and strong faith.

            For the arrangement of the Tribal Camps “The LORD said to Moses and Aaron: ‘The Israelites are to camp around the Tent of Meeting some distance from it, each man under his standard with the banners of his family’” (Numbers 2:1-2).

            I must say I have another banner that is not taped on my wall, but it is taped on my heart and I remember it each day. “His banner over me is love” (Song of Solomon 2:4).  It isn’t a banner I can see in the natural, but through the eyes of faith I know it’s there. That banner reminds me that I am engraved in the palms of God’s hands, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me” (Isaiah 49:16 NIV).

            God’s banner reminds his children that nothing can separate them from his love.  “For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from his love. Death can’t, and life can’t. The angels won’t, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away. Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, or where we are…high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean…nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when he died for us” (Romans: 38-39 TLB).

            Let God’s banner wave proudly in your heart. He planned for you and me to be born and he has a plan for our lives…”Before I was born the LORD called me to serve him. The LORD named me while I was still in my mother’s body” (Isaiah 49:1 NCV).

            God’s banner is for every day of life. His banner reminds those who love him that he is wealth more precious than jewels.

            I heard a story about a wise woman who was traveling in the mountains and found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, so the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation.

            The traveler left and rejoiced in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. The traveler went back to return the stone to the wise woman.

            “I’ve been thinking,” he said. “I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give to me this precious stone.”

            May I give you “Jehovah Nissi” today?  He is the precious stone. His love for you never ends. “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” (Hebrews 13:5 NIV).  “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7 NIV). You can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. (Philippians 4:13).

He brings you to the “banquet room, and his banner over you is love!”