God Speaking

“you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house…” – 1 Peter 2:5

I have always been fascinated by rocks and stones. As a child, I would collect stones and peer into them to see wavy lines and streaks of color and wonder about how they got those distinctive marks and who put them there.

My husband’s family lived by the beach on the East Coast of Australia and nearby to their house was a secluded cove with a beach bejeweled with pebbles. Not surprisingly the locals called it Pebbly Beach. When my husband first took me to see this amazing little cove it was as if all my childish dreams had come true. I immediately began to choose the most beautiful ones to keep, but this soon turned into a daunting task. Which to keep? Which to discard? I would need a truck to carry all the ones I had chosen and seeing we had hiked into this beach that was out of the question. My husband interrupted my frenzy of pebble sorting to tell me that the best was yet to come. He took me down to the water’s edge and bending down to peer through the crystal clear water he urged me to do the same. At first I could not believe my eyes. The pebbles under the water had taken on a whole new beauty. Yes. They were the same pebbles as those on the shore, but the water had transformed their colors to breathtaking vibrant beauty. They looked like they had come alive.

Jesus himself has been called “the living stone”. (1 Peter 2:4) Peter was urging his listeners to become like Jesus and not only for our own sake, but as living stones we were going to be built into a spiritual house. It takes a lot of stones to build a house and every stone has its role to play in keeping the walls standing strong and straight. Some of the heavier stones may need to support smaller not as sturdy stones. Some are needed for that tiny niche that needs filling between two odd shaped stones. Some might never see the light of day, but still fill an important role in keeping that front façade firm and secure.

How willing are we to become living stones? We cannot build that spiritual house by ourselves, so that means we might have to be humble enough to allow others to support us on our spiritual journey, or we may be asked to carry another’s burden especially if the person the Lord has allowed into our life has a burden too heavy to carry. We might find ourselves wedged between two difficult personalities and find the Lord asking us to bring about peace for the sake of unity. We may be asked to be one of those who are always in the background just as support for those with up front responsibilities. We need to constantly have before us our example, Jesus the living stone.

Just like the crystal clear water of Pebbly Beach, we are promised “living water” to transform us into sparkling and living stones.

Jesus answers the woman at the well in John 4:10

“. . . If you knew the gift of God and who it is who asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

We will never know what beautiful colors the Lord wants to display in our lives unless we allow him to transform us with that living water until we become living stones willingly taking and fulfilling our role as part of his spiritual house.

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· The Beach House (greerhome.wordpress.com)