A Wall of Living Stones

1 Peter 2:4-6: As you come to him, the living Stone – rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: “See I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.”

For quite some time now the Hemrick’s have been building a multi-leveled wall in our front yard – our goal: give our home curb appeal – make it appealing to future buyers and make it a beautiful part of our neighborhood.

Slowly but surely the work has progressed from one row of rocks to the now almost finished stage. Pallets of stone have been regularly delivered to our yard and driveway to be added to the wall.   The hot and weary task of digging trenches has been undertaken to give the wall a firm foundation. Lines have been snapped to make sure that the wall rises and remains straight. Mesh and gravel have been added to make sure the stone stands firm in the midst of heavy New Jersey rains and snow. We have even been inspected along the way to make sure the work is up to expectations.

But the most interesting part of the entire process has been the slow task of raising the wall itself – each stone added is inspected to see if it will fit properly in the open spot. Often the stones are tried, turned, moved, rejected temporarily and used later in the process. Some – big, flat, important stones are meant for the stairs leading to the front door. Some smaller flat stone will find their place in the pretty little staircase running through the wall to enable us to water the someday flowers we envision. Some little stones that seemed to be of little use found their place in filling the most dangerous spots of the wall were water would be most destructive. And some very flat skinny stones are making the most beautiful top of our wall.

This year our school theme comes from 1Peter 2:5: “…You, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

During the summer months within God’s gracious plan student stones, faculty stones, leadership stones, etc. were all tried, turned, and inspected – and to our sorrow some were removed – to bring together -our unique 2017-2018 Eastern Christian wall of living stones called to work collectively to serve, and grow to glorify and praise our Savior now and in the future He has prepared as we join past and future walls to complete His great spiritual house.

Charles Spurgeon has encapsulated this thought better than I can:

…He (God) knows the end from the beginning. He sees in its appointed place not merely the cornerstone that He has laid in fair colors, in the blood of His dear Son, but He sees each of the chosen stones taken out of the quarry, placed in their ordained positions, and polished by His grace. He sees the whole from corner to cornice, from base to roof, from foundation to pinnacle. In His mind, he has a clear knowledge of every stone that will be put in its prepared space, and how vast the structure will be when the capstone is set in place with shouts of “Grace! Grace!” In the end, it will be clearly seen that in every child of God, Jehovah did as He planned with His own; and in every part of the work of grace he accomplished His purpose and glorified His own name.