Silent Stones

The other morning my five-year-old daughter asked me if we could listen to the sunrise. She wanted to look for the sun to rise—specifically to see if it had spikes on it like in the cartoons. We watched while the sky turned from black to grey to light blue. Then she told me to listen to the sunrise. She wasn’t listening to the celestial object move across the sky. We listened to birds begin their songs. We listened to the nearby dogs and cats begin to explore in the early daylight. We listened to the wind rustle through the trees. We listened to the events of the sunrise.
I am amazed by the small things that we seem to miss when the big things go on around us. Now that it is spring time there is much to consider in this realm. Spring thunderstorms roll through our area and we all talk about the rain. But we don’t often notice the new life on the trees or the flowers of the fields that follow such rains. We may notice the days getting longer, but we don’t look for the new life that the extra hours of sun bring. When I do take time to notice such things I often wonder how I missed them before.
The Bible tells an interesting story about Jesus on the Sunday before the crucifixion. One week before Jesus rose from the dead, He rode into town on a humble donkey colt. His followers shouted his praises as He rode down into the Kidron Valley and up the opposite hill into Jerusalem. Some real self-righteous thinking religious leaders told Jesus to silence His followers. He told them He couldn’t. If they stopped praising what God was doing, then the very rocks would cry out. What if we stopped thanking God for what He has done in our midst? The stories of the Bible and history tell us that God always has a witness to speak on His behalf. As I “hear” the things of creation lift up praise to God, I wonder how loudly they would cry out if we stopped? Will we let the rocks take our rightful place?

This Sunday let's engage in a conversation about those silent stones.