Standing Stones

I have come across them on an ocean shore, on top of a mountain, beside a river; a stack of uncut native stones balanced upon each other, often forming a manlike figure. They are called inuksuk, meaning “in the likeness of a human” in the Inuit language. On a forbidding, often featureless northern landscape, these rough stone sculptures were a welcome sight for searching travelers. Originally used by the arctic dwelling Inuit for communication and survival, the inuksuk is a traditional monument, saying “someone was here” or “you are on the right path”.

An even earlier civilization used standing stones as monuments, not by their own decision but at the command of the Lord God. In Joshua 3, the Israelites came to the Jordan River where Joshua conveyed God’s instructions to the Levite priests carrying the ark of the covenant. They were to step into the water and lead the people to the other side. This was no meandering stream but a river at flood stage, swift and deep. Obediently they took their first step, then watched in wonder as the waters mounded high on either side of a dry path opening up across the riverbed. “The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firm on dry ground in the middle of the Jordan, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground.” (Joshua 3:17 NIV)

For the second time in their exodus from Egypt God had parted the waters miraculously before the Israelites. He wanted them to remember, so through their leader, Joshua, He instructed a man from each of the twelve tribes to carry a stone from the middle of the Jordan and set them up together as a monument. “Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future when your descendants ask their fathers, ‘What do these stones mean?’ tell them, ‘The Lord your God did to the Jordan just what He had done to the Red Sea when He dried it up before us until we had crossed over. He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always worship the Lord your God.” (Joshua 4:21-24)

I have standing stones in my life. Not actual stones but figurative markers on my lifeline indicating where God has done mighty things. When I am asked, “What do these stones mean?“, I will speak about a barnacle-covered beach stone at the seaside bible camp where he made me His own. The place where tears wet a crumbling altar of broken vows and health is where everything was lost so I could come to know the Love I could not lose. I will gladly describe the obelisk pointing skyward where He knit my life back together in a new place, grounding me with love and purpose. Each beauty sketched in sky and landscape, creature and person, places a pebble in the monument of my worship of Christ who is worthy of all honor and adoration, the Living Stone.

“Come to Him — the living stone — who was rejected by people but accepted by God as chosen and precious. Like living stones, let yourselves be assembled into a spiritual house, a holy order of priests who offer up spiritual sacrifices that will be acceptable to God through Jesus the Anointed.” (1 Peter 2:4-5 The Voice)

A Stone Pillow

It has always mystified me why Jacob, in Genesis 28, used a stone for a pillow. He had been sent by his father on a journey to find a wife, so it is assumed he was equipped with supplies for travel, including bedding. So why a stone for a pillow?

I have a personal theory. He believed he deserved nothing better than a stone for a pillow. Jacob was also fleeing from his brother, Esau, whom he had tricked out of receiving their father, Isaac’s blessing of the first-born. His mother had talked him into the deception, for which he was likely suffering much remorse.

Jacob laid his head upon a stone, and in that hard place he encountered God. In the midst of his regret, loneliness and uncertainty, he was visited in a dream by God Himself, who promised him, “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.” (Gen. 28:14-15  NIV)

Now the stone which had been Jacob’s self-punishment, became a stone of commemoration. “When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel. (house of God)” – (Gen. 28:16, 18-19)

I have often laid upon a stone pillow, blindly unaware of God in that hard place, only to be met by Him and receive His blessing. Whether the stone pillow is there by my own doing or because of outside circumstances, it is an uncomfortable place to be.
When my thoughts tread weary circles in my mind, a stone is my pillow.
When my heart is heavy with grief and hurt, a stone is my pillow.
When sin and failure dog my steps, a stone is my pillow.

But I have discovered those hard places are where God comes to bless me with His comforting presence. Jacob heard God’s promise in a dream. I receive His promises by His Word, which I recall as I lay on my stone pillow.
~“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” – (Heb. 13:5)
~“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” – (John 1:9)
~“And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” – (John 14:2-3)

When I look back on my life path, I see the hard places of struggle and pain as standing stones commemorating where God met me, where He told me as He did Jacob, I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go. What was once my stone pillow, a place of pain, has now become a monument to the blessings of God on a most undeserving soul. How awesome God is to bless me in my brokenness with His very own holy presence and comfort. Someday I will discard my stone pillow for eternal rest upon His breast.