Living Stones
“So these stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever…that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is mighty…” (Joshua 4:7,24)
It was a weekend to remember.
A foundation of friendship was built. A foundation that’s endured and a friendship that’s become an extravagant display of God’s love for me—His love through the love of another.
We stayed the weekend at our family cabin in the Santa Cruz mountains amidst towering redwoods and lush ferns. It was October and the coastal weather was beautiful. We spent hours talking, laughing, and sharing our hearts’ passion—our love for God and His Word.
She listened as I shared my abiding theory that my fear of snakes dates back to Eve’s encounter with the serpent in the garden. And I listened and learned as she, my friend and mentor, taught me that marriage is a reflection of Christ’s relationship with the church. Together we searched the scriptures for affirmation of our beliefs, both the ridiculous and the imperative. It was a weekend to remember.
Occasionally, I’ll pull those memories out and dust them off. When I do, one moment stands out against the others.
We took a short hike up a steep and winding grade. Winded, we reached the top and crossed an open, grassy field and found a path that led down the other side of the incline. As we stepped out of the clearing and onto the forested trail, we stopped together, awed by the magnificence before us.
Regal redwoods stood guard, their branches a canopy of protection over the mysteries below. A shadowed coverlet of intricate lacework blanketed the canyon floor as sunlight danced and dappled through the trees. The only sounds heard over the scampering of the forest’s creatures were our own whispered words of wonder.
Such grandeur breeds reverence.
My friend leaned close and quietly prompted, “Tell me something you’ve never told anyone before.” Childlike conspirators, we longed to preserve the moment.
Tinkling giggles shattered the spell when I could think of nothing I hadn’t already told her. But the question itself preserved the moment—a moment indelibly marked on the walls of my mind and heart. For in that moment I knew God’s love. He is, among other things, a friend who desires the intimacy of shared confidences. He is a friend to be trusted.
In my album of memories that moment serves as a spiritual marker—a memorial to the might of God’s transforming love. Not unlike the stone memorials of old built as reminders to future generations of God’s goodness.
But today, under the new covenant, we no longer build monuments of stones as testaments of God’s work and power in our lives; instead, His Spirit through our lives bears proof of His glorious touch. Peter, in his first epistle, tells us that the church or the body of Christ, are “living stones” who “proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness and into His marvelous light…” (1 Peter 2:5,9).
Like stones, solid, strong, and enduring, so can be the relationships between the members of the church—living proof of a people redeemed and healed by the blood of the Lamb. Our stories will become markers for future generations, telling of God’s gracious love and the salvation of His people.
My friend and I built a foundation that weekend—a friendship founded on the Cornerstone, Jesus Christ. A friendship that God has used to “call me out of darkness and into His marvelous light.”
It was a weekend to remember.
And I am a “living stone” proclaiming the excellencies of my loving Heavenly Father.
