I remember my father loved to work in stone and he built a number of stone retaining walls. Like a jigsaw puzzle, the art and beauty of this was how all the different stones found their right fit as part of the one wall. My dad could take a heap of stones and fit them together to form something beautiful as well as something useful.
I thought of this in doing devotions from 1 Peter 2: (using the SOAP model – Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer)
Scripture: “you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house (or ‘temple of the Spirit’) to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 2:5).
Observation: Jesus is seen as THE living Stone – rejected by people but chosen by God. It is a remarkable image because stones do not live, ordinarily! Peter quotes from the Old Testament passages, speaking of the cornerstone, and of the stone over which people stumble. Jesus is both the foundation on which other living stones can be placed, yet at the same time the One over whom people stumble and fall in their independence. We, too, become living stones when we are united with Christ, as we then share His identity.
Application: Stones come in all shapes and sizes. Like my dad’s stone wall, they have to be fit together – and they can be fit together – to form a construction which is strong, unified and beautiful. God is seeking to fit us together in such a way. To be part of the church is to be one of those living stones, inter-connected with others. We become, then, a ‘holy priesthood’, that is, together we offer sacrifices, prayer and worship, not just for ourselves but on behalf of the world. This daring image tells us just how marvellously God has made us part of His plan to redeem the world.
Prayer: Father, thank you for this special privilege, to be living stones. Help us not to be a heap or pile of stones, but to be stones fit together in our places that we may be beautiful for you and may be your holy priesthood on behalf of the world. Thank you that we are built on that living Stone, Jesus Christ, our cornerstone. Amen.
Question: How are you doing as a ‘living stone’?