Stones.

My family's homestead is at the end of mile long gravel driveway. The driveway itself is ancient, an old path used by the local Native Americans to get to the Mississippi River. It cuts through ancient hills just south of the city of Vicksburg. As a child, I was afraid to go down that driveway by myself until I was old enough to ride my bike, which I eventually did a lot on that loose gravel. Often, on my travels I would stop and look at the rocks in the gravel. They fascinated me because they were all different, all beautiful -- and all difficult to ride on in a bike. If you turned it just so, you'd spin out and they would pop up and hit you and it hurt. Trust me. Stones . . . it seems our life is made up of lots of stones, some beautiful, all different, and many difficult, rearing up to smack us at times. But there is one stone that remains secure and safe. It is the one the writer of the 1st letter of Peter refers to in the second chapter, vs. 2-10: "Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight." The writer goes on: " . . . like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Christ, we remember, was the "stone that the builders rejected" who was "the cornerstone, chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame." When life hurts, when others throw hard things at us, when we stumble and fall, when we spin out in loose gravel, it is Him who binds our wounds and holds us together, loved and treasured -- and forgiven. And so, it should be easy to remember that we, as his people, are bound as chosen, "a royal priesthood, a holy nation . . . in order that we might proclaim the mighty acts of the one who. . . called us out of darkness into his marvelous light." All of this because, in Him, we have and know God's abiding mercy and love.
When have you been "stoned?"
Talk Amongst Yourselves.
a.