Stones
It was when they left the garden
that they learned about stones. It was hard labour for them to grow food now,
for the ground must be cleared before the crops could be sown, and they must
remove not only thorns and thistles and every kind of weed, but also the
stones. They learned that rocky ground was poor ground, where seed would sprout
quickly, and fall away fast. Then they learned that stones were useful for
building. They needed shelter from the weather – from scorching heat and
piercing cold and soaking rain. And with stones they could build an altar and
make sacrifices to God, and Abel’s offering was acceptable to the Lord, and
Cain’s was not. And out in the fields Cain picked up a stone in his hand, and
murdered his own brother, and as they soaked up the innocent blood, the very
stones of the ground cried out in protest.
The centuries passed. The stones of
the earth were covered with water, they were built into a mighty tower and, as
men spread out across the world, one man put a stone under his head for a
pillow, and in a vision he saw the very angels of God ascending and descending on a ladder to heaven. More
time passed. The family of the promise had gone down into an alien land and
become enslaved. All through the day they toiled to make bricks without straw,
imitation stones, for the futile monuments of a godless king.
Then God sent a deliverer, and with
mighty signs and wonders, and great fear, they were brought out of the land of
slavery and brought to the place of God’s appointment, where the mighty stone
of Mt Sinai rose up in the desert. And
He called them to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, but they were
afraid. So He gave them the Law of his covenant, written on tablets of stone,
as bitterly hard as their own stony, enslaved hearts. And for those who broke
the law? Stones would be thrown at them.
And they settled in the land that
they were given, and their relationships were based on boundary stones rather
than love. And they had kings, and one king, while still a boy, killed a giant
with a single thrown stone. Stones can be deadly. And God sent forth prophets
among them, and the prophets told them that one day their hearts of stone would
turn to hearts of flesh, and their stone idols would be cast down. But who
believes prophets?
And then God himself came down to
dwell among them, and some met him with love and adoration, and some hardened
their stony hearts against him. And he trod the stony roads and walked among
them, offering them a way back to God, but they preferred their own way, so
finally they plotted against him and killed him. And on that stone hill, shaped
like a skull, they crucified the Lord of Glory. In agony he died and in sorrow
they buried him. And his body was encased within the stony tomb.
But when the women came to the
tomb, on the morning of the third day, a great wonder had occurred. For the
great stone of death and finality had been rolled away, forever; and the stony
law had been superseded. Life himself had risen from the dead, and behold he
was alive for evermore.
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