RECLAIMING EBENEZER

For Christmas this year I received a lovely homemade present from my daughter. She is a gifted artist, and it was done on commission. I wanted a sign to hang in the entrance way to our home, and I wanted it to bear the word ‘Ebenezer’.

Ebenezer? Not just for Christmas!

Why does Mum want a reference to Scrooge up on her wall? That was my son’s horrified response. Of course, the name Ebenezer is forever associated with the miserly ‘bah humbug’ character from Charles Dickiens classic, A Christmas Carol. But that is a shame, because it really is a beautiful name. You may have noticed it engraved on the facades of old chapels – I have seen it more than once, here in the UK.

A tough year

If you have been reading my blogs recently you will know that 2025 was a difficult year for us. It was a year marked with grief and loss. For many months of 2025 I became the chief care giver for my parents. It was a privilege to be put in that position, and I embraced the role. It was my way of honouring parents that I loved dearly and owed so much to. However, to say it was hard was an understatement. It became, in many ways, a test of endurance. Very many times I felt close to failing, falling, collapsing under the weight of it all, as I watched one, and then the other live out the last days of their lives on earth. To watch a loved one suffer is heart-breaking, even when you are doing all that you can to ease their pain, even when you know that they are going to be with Jesus soon. There were moments of joy and laughter, and an overriding peace in it all. And we were surrounded by amazing family, friends and health care professionals, who helped us more than we can say. But it was really tough.

Almost overwhelmed

As 2025 drew to a close, I was grateful. Grateful that a new year might bring less pain, more healing, new beginnings. But I was also grateful to God for being with us through what has been the hardest year of my life.  So, so grateful.

Psalm 124 declares, ‘If it had not been the Lord who was on our side… Then the waters would have overwhelmed us, The stream would have gone over our soul’. This is my testimony. I look back and know, with 100% certainty, that without God with us, we would have been completely overwhelmed by our circumstances. By the pain, loss, grief and relentlessness of it all.

So, my homemade sign will soon hang proudly in my entrance hall. And it will hang there as a declaration for all to see. A memorial stone if you like, which is where the name comes from.

Here I raise my Ebenezer*

In I Samuel 7 we read how Israel is facing attack from the Philistines. They have already suffered defeat, and they cry out to God, through His prophet Samuel, to help them. God responds and their enemies are crushed. Samuel chooses to do something so that the people will remember what God has done for them for years to come.

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” v12

‘Ebenezer’ literally means ‘Stone of Help’. The word ’Ezer’ or help is found many times in the Old Testament, and it almost always refers to God. It is the word God uses to describe the woman in Genesis 2:18, the ‘helper’ or ‘help meet’ that the man needs. It does not mean someone lesser, a servant, or an aid ( why God uses it of the woman is the subject for another time!). To state that God is our helper means to declare than the almighty, all powerful One has deigned to step down and stand beside us, surround us, support us and provide for all that we need. He has helped us, like no other can. Because He is faithful and good, because He is strong, powerful, wise and kind, because He is far greater than we are. Because He loves us.

Our eternal Ezer

It was important for me to make a similar declaration to the one that Samuel made as I stepped from one year into the next.  As my family moves on into a new season. As we continue to heal from what has passed and look with quiet hope to the future. I wanted to mark this moment.

Thus far the Lord has helped us. We could not have done it without Him. And we will never have to endure anything else, whatever might come, without His help. He is our eternal EZER.

And as for Ebenezer Scrooge? Well, I read A Christmas Carol again this year, and do you know, by the end, he is a completely transformed man! A really loving, kind and generous soul. So perhaps Ebenezer isn’t such a bad name after all!

*From the hymn ‘Come thou fount of every blessing’

Joy Margetts is a published author and blogger. Her books are works of Christian Historical fiction. Set in medieval Wales against the backdrop of Cistercian abbey life, they tell stories of faith, hope and God’s redemptive power.

She has also written two non-fiction devotionals. More information on Joy, and her books can be found here