Do you have a stone?

It was almost exactly 6 years ago today. I was the farthest away from home that I had ever been.

It was a windy, chilly and overcast day as my husband and I drove on U.S. Hwy 101 along the coast of California.

For the past couple of days we’d been driving up the state of California. My husband had just graduated from an online Masters program through Pepperdine University in Malibu and grandparents were wonderful to keep our kids at home on the east coast side so we could turn this occasion into a get-away vacation and celebration of his accomplishment. Our final destination was Seattle.

As we got very close to Oregon, we decided to stop to be able to say that we set our feet on the west coast sand.  All before now we had been on the winding road with huge old Redwood trees surrounding us.

We found a “tourist” attraction sign so we stopped. We saw the beach from where we parked but had no idea it was a mile hike to get to it. And not just a flat coast line to run on to get to the sand. It was a one mile hike down a very steep and wooded hill.

Even though it was gray all around, the green leaves were lush with explosions of colors from wild flowers splattered along the way. We heard the trickle of a creek along the way to the beach. We couldn’t see it from the trail but I just had to see it. So, pushing back branches we unveiled the view of a breath-taking waterfall.

Water was running over, between and around smooth, large stones. That was just a taste.

We kept trekking to the shore and once we got there… I was surprised.

Living in North Carolina, when we go to the beach, we go to play in the pale yellow or light tan sand…even white in some places. And the grains of sand are minute…every single one of them!

We stepped foot on the very gray sand, with some specks of light gray and even black sand. And not only were there tiny grains of sand, but also different sized stones in the midst of the smaller pebbles and grains of sand.

They were beautiful, smooth stones.

They were magnets to my hands.

I had never imagined the beach to be dull gray, black and white, but it was one of the most beautiful and intriguing creations I had ever seen.

Just like seashells, each stone was different. There were streaks and splotches of white and light gray swirling around the stones…each one different…each one sacred.

I don’t know if I should’ve done it but I slipped one of the prettiest ones in my pocket to take home with me.

That moment was a sacred time for me. Sometimes it’s easy to feel like a small and ordinary stone in the midst of millions of others, all the hue of gray…

But there is still beauty in each one.

Breath-taking beauty in the eye’s of God because He created all beautiful things and all things beautiful.  He created each beautiful one of us.

I still have that stone in a little box on my dresser. Occasionally I’ll pick it up and run my fingers over the silky smooth stone. I see it and feel it to remember that sacred moment.

Jacob in the Bible had a sacred stone…the pillow he laid his head on the night he saw a ladder reach up to heaven. All throughout the journey at the Promised Land, God’s people would place stones on the place they experienced God as memoirs to remind themselves when and where God had revealed Himself and His holiness to them.

Do you have a “stone” to remind yourself of a time when you were on holy ground? Do you have a memoir that you can hold in your hand, put in your pocket, place on your bedside table or dresser, or the dashboard of your car as a reminder of God Moments in your life? It might be a stone, a seashell, a marble, a picture, a cross…anything small you can hold… that takes you to that holy space.

That holy space being a time when you knew God was present…where you heard God’s Voice through a specific bible verse or words in a song, where you felt your heart change, where you knew without a doubt that you were on holy ground in holy Presence.

Praying and hoping you’ve found or will find your own “stone”…

 

Continued gratitude count…

#686   the smooth stone the reminds me of God’s beauty

#687   free meal at CFA

#688  bowling with family

#689  yellow bowling balls

#690  picture daughter drew on yellow paper that hangs on fridge of RESURRECTION!

#691  yellow magnet on fridge saying,  “Love the Lord you God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength…”

#692  yellow mushrooms in our flower pot???

#694   communion

#693   daughter excited about going away to church camp for first time “on her own”…will you please pray for her to have a heart-impacting experience where she’ll know Jesus even more? 

Remember to look for stones!