During one season of my life, I fancied myself as a photographer. My sweet spot, my joy, was in capturing wide-eyed, bubbly high school seniors who were looking toward graduation and life’s next big step. In my eyes, their photos truly were “worth a thousand words” as the adage claims.
Just as I’m drawn to beautiful photographs, I adore a well-placed word picture. The image it invokes helps me “see” more clearly.
In His Word, God masterfully uses many powerful teaching techniques such as asking great questions, telling stories, and painting skillful word pictures. Each technique is born of purpose. For example, the word pictures help us “see” more clearly. They enable us to better glimpse His character, His ways, His design for the church and relationships and so much more. And to help us even more, His choice of word pictures is wide and varied – a body, a flock of sheep, crops and harvests, vines and branches, and living stones, just to name a few.
Living Stones
As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:4-5
In 1 Peter 2:4-5, Peter reminds us that the Lord Jesus Christ is the living stone of God’s house and that He is our identity and purpose. In this passage, Peter declares that we too are living stones being built into a spiritual house. Once we were dead, now we are alive. Individually, collectively being built into a spiritual house where God dwells by His Spirit.
Another Point of View
This ‘living stone’ imagery is so helpful in providing us with a picture of who we are in Christ and the purpose to which we’ve been called, and that alone would be more than enough. But, as so often is the case, when I ponder this passage and think more deeply on it, I’m led to yet another picture.
In Jewish history it was part of the culture to place a large stone as a testament to something God had done. Now take the time to create the picture with me. These weren’t tiny pebbles or a stone that could easily be carried. No! These were massive stones. Stones one could not miss even if they tried. Stones with purpose. Each one telling the story of something God had done for the nation of Israel. One example of this tradition is found in the book of Joshua.
When all the nation had finished passing over the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, “Take twelve men from the people, from each tribe a man, and command them, saying, ‘Take twelve stones from here out of the midst of the Jordan, from the very place where the priests’ feet stood firmly, and bring them over with you and lay them down in the place where you lodge tonight.’” Then Joshua called the twelve men from the people of Israel, whom he had appointed, a man from each tribe. And Joshua said to them, “Pass on before the ark of the Lord your God into the midst of the Jordan, and take up each of you a stone upon his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the people of Israel, that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, ‘What do those stones mean to you?’ then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever.”
Joshua 4:1-7
Notice that the stones in this passage were intended as a memorial. They were to be a reminder of the event and God’s deliverance. There presence was to be a visual prompt for keeping their history before them. Similarly, our stories should be reminders to our children and our grandchildren.
In her article “The High Calling of Grandparents,” where author Bernice Vandervalk compares stones and stories, she concludes by saying, “As our culture fragments more and more, grandparents can pass on the spiritual torch by telling their grandchildren of the ‘standing stones’ in their own lives, thereby being ‘living stones.’ They can tell about those places where God did something wonderful, where some great spiritual lesson or truth was learned. In these stories like in the Jewish culture, a spiritual heritage and understanding of the character of God is passed from one generation to the next. It teaches the children that while the world changes, what God does, and what God values, does not change.”
What a challenge this is to us. Yes, we are “living stones” being built into a spiritual house, but we are also “living stones” to our grandchildren. If we intend to pass this spiritual truth that God is the same yesterday, today, and always to our families, it is essential that we are placing massive memorial stones before them. In other words, we must tell our stories. Entertain your grandchildren with stories of your childhood or the childhood of their parents. Record your life’s important events in journals to be shared with your grandchildren. Share your thoughts and words of wisdom in written form.
When our oldest daughter was preparing to leave home to attend Bible college several states away, my husband asked me to purchase a blank journal for his use. In it he wrote down some of his favorite Bible verses, little sayings that hold special meaning for him, and various insights he had gleaned over the years. He wanted to share with her his thoughts, words, and wishes as she left home. What he gave to her was a gift of himself. Then just as he did for her, he later did for each of our other children as they left home and headed off for college. Believe it or not, he is now in the season of prepping journals for each of our grandchildren.
Whether humorous or serious, oral or written, place those stones by sharing yourself and your history with your grandchildren.
