Stones Along the Way
Scripture
John 4:13–14 · · ESV
During our travels, I often find myself looking for stones.
Usually, their color or shape is what first catches my eye. I remember finding an L-shaped stone in St. Lucia. Last spring, I searched for one that looked as much like the shape of Vermont as possible. My brother apparently caught my stone-searching fever because he brought a colorful one over to me when we were at the beach in Croatia.
A few of those stones eventually find their way to the bottom of my turtle tank.
When we first got Myrtle, I purchased a package of stones for the bottom. But over the years we have added several from our travels. Myrtle pushes them around, sometimes enough to clear an entire corner.
They are just stones.
Ordinary pieces of nature that we walk past every day.
One day when I was reading Genesis 29, I realized how often stones appear throughout the Bible. Moses received the commandments on tablets of stone. Jacob rested his head on a stone at Bethel and later set it upright as a pillar to remember the place where God had met him.
Then in Genesis 29, Jacob arrived at a well and found shepherds waiting with their flocks. A large stone covered the mouth of the well. When Rachel arrived, Jacob hurried to move that heavy stone so her father’s sheep had access to the water they desperately needed.
Then I think about another well.
Jacob’s well.
Hundreds of years later, Jesus sat beside that well and spoke with a Samaritan woman who had come to draw water.
The water from Jacob’s well was still important. People needed it to live.
But Jesus offered her Living water.
“But whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst.”
The physical water that had been so important to Jacob, his family, their animals, and generations after them suddenly points toward something greater.
Jesus.
And then there is another stone.
The stone at His tomb.
Picturing the stone rolled away from Jesus’ tomb brings me both sadness and joy.
Sadness when I consider the unimaginable pain Christ suffered.
But joy because He did it.
For me. For all.
The stone was rolled away, and the women who came to the tomb were able to see that Jesus was not there.
He had risen.
Each time I return to Scripture, I am amazed at how all the pieces connect. Stories can be separated by hundreds, even thousands, of years, yet together they tell us who God is and what He has done.
And I love that God uses ordinary things like stones, seeds, bread and water. Things people see and touch every day. We see them and hopefully think about His Word.
Now when a stone catches my eye, I may still notice its unusual color or shape. But sometimes I also remember a stone well or an empty tomb.
And remember His Word. His sacrifice. His love.
Prayer
Amelia