Born To Be Living Stones

My dad was a rockhound with a tumbler. I can still picture him taking common-looking rocks and magically change them into uniquely beautiful polished stones.

As they tumbled in gritty water, they ground against each other making sharp edges become smoother, as once deep indentations and cracks softened to give them unique characteristics. A final cleaning and shiny polish then revealed the unique beauty and colors of each, which had been hidden beneath rough exteriors.

They were dramatically changed, but it was unbelievably messy to get them there! I can still picture my dad pulling out a handful of dripping sludge and rocks to check their progress—his face proudly shining as he could look beyond the sludge to envision what they were becoming! …while we kids could see only sludge.

One day I was thinking about some Christians who had devastated me. The sharp hardness of one I once trusted was especially wounding, which I still struggled with. Suddenly my mind flashed with the memory of my Dad’s tumbled stones. I immediately knew what my Heavenly Father was telling me. We are just like those rough rocks my dad had worked his magic on. We too are all broken and flawed from life’s blows and disappointments that too often misshape our spirit and impact our actions.

Just like my earthly father saw beyond the flaws of each stone to see what it could become, so does our Heavenly Father, only better. He looks beyond OUR flaws to see that we can become amazing Living Stones. We just need to trust him as He purposefully allows us to be tumbled – bumping and “grinding” each other as we go, allowing His Water of Life and the grit of His Word, to soften and smooth us over time, so it can reveal our own unique colors of hope and design that for too long has been hidden from sight.

“You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house … acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”  I Peter 2:5 (NIV)