The Stones Cry Out

 

A Rock and Word Hound at Heart

I am a professed and sometimes even obsessed rock hound that can barely look up when in the presence of rocks. Most people wonder what I'm looking for as I scan the ground methodically in search of a prized gem.

In the Beginning

My love of rocks began at the age of thirteen, when my father took me on a vacation to Duluth, Minnesota, about 4 hours north of my hometown. He was a contemplative person, as was I. Therefore, I was content to sit silently by the shores of Lake Superior for long periods, sifting through rocks and stuffing my pockets with all the pretty ones I could find. Dad was perfectly content to sit quietly and watch. I don't recall finding any coveted Lake Superior Agates like I saw in the gift shops along the scenic North Shore that trip. Still, I was so amused by them that I diligently searched every place we went to. The years passed, and I forgot all about agates, but I continued to collect any stone I found worthy of keeping. 

 Your testimonies are wonderful; Therefore, my soul keeps them. 

— Psalm 119:129

 

 

The Parallel Experience

 My interest in agates began several years ago, when I attached a directional sign to a pole on our gravel road near our home for my granddaughter's baby shower. As I stepped into the ditch, something caught my eye. It was a beautifully banded Lake Superior agate. 

I was surprised to learn that Lake Superior agates can be found as far south as Iowa along the midcontinental rift, also known as the "Broken Heart of North America." This rift begins north of the Great Lakes and runs south to Alabama. It just so happens to pass right through my area. These beauties are predominantly discovered in the gravel. I have been walking and running on dusty, lackluster gravel for several years and never thought to look down for a hidden treasure. After discovering my first beauty and learning there was more, the hunt was on.

 "There are deep things about Jesus in the Old Testament, which many walk over like hidden gold mines, not knowing the treasure beneath their feet." 

— J.C. Ryle

There was a parallel to this experience: when I was thirteen, I also came to know my Father in Heaven through my Lord Jesus Christ. Our family, up until then, was a chaotic mess. My mother came to know the Lord through a friend and subsequently made some dramatic life decisions and changes, born of her newly developing relationship with God. She shared her faith with me, and I gladly accepted and welcomed both the faith and the changes that came with it. A far "Superior" way of life had been discovered, and although things weren't perfect, they were undoubtedly heading in the right direction. 

 The Treasure of His Word

The friend who invited my mother to church also bought me a Bible, and, like my love for agates, I became amazed by the comforting and correcting beauty of God's stunning Word, which so uniquely addressed my need. I caught glimpses of treasures lying just beneath the surface of what most consider a colorless, old, dusty, ancient piece of literature. 

I rejoice at Your word As one who finds great treasure. 

— Psalm 119:162

For Your word has given me life.  

— Psalm119:50 

 

However, beginning in my late teens, I took a ten-year detour into the world and forgot about His Word and its beauty in search of more worldly pursuits, just as I did the agates. Without Jesus, my life became a chaotic mess far surpassing the very things I hated growing up until Jesus, by His Holy Spirit, led this prodigal girl back home at around age 28.

Gem/Word Discovery

Then, a faithful Bible Study teacher, Jean Karau, began to show me the hidden treasures in the Word of God that I could not take my eyes off. She showed me how His Word consists of multi-layered bands of revelation that could be mined and quarried by anyone willing to do a diligent search, and just as with my experience with the agate, the hunt was on. A lesson in agate hunting and Bible gem discoveries is that neither is found apart from diligent seeking.

My son, if you receive my words, And treasure my commands within you So that you incline your ear to wisdom, And apply your heart to understanding If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, And find the knowledge of God. 

— Proverbs 2:1-5

 A notable parallel between agate hunting and Bible study is that the best way to discover what is false is to study the real thing intently. I was most recently at a kids' summer camp, where we had a few spare moments while we waited for our ride back to camp from the pool, and decided to show some of the kids who were interested the little beauties in the playground pea rock. I happened to find an excellently banded sample, and whenever someone asked whether a stone they had seen was an agate, I would hold out the real one for them to compare. So it is with the Bible. We need to be Berean-like with all the things "not God" surrounding us in this world, including false teachings.

(Bereans) ... receive the word with all readiness, and search the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things are so. 

— Acts 17:11 

"Let us not deceive ourselves, a slothful negligent hearing of the Word will bring no man to life." 

— John Owen

Rocks, in particular, fascinate me because they have been a part of the earth's substance from the very beginning. Each one tells a story of something that happened, creatively speaking. Every time I pick up a rock, I find myself asking, "What happened?" 

 ... speak to the earth, and it will teach you ... That the hand of the Lord has done this. 

— Job 12:8

 

 "When we lift up any stone in the universe God's fingerprints stare back at us" ~ Richard A. Swenson, "More than Meets the Eye.

The Fingerprint of God

The banding on the above specimen looks very much like a fingerprint. It reminded me of God's fingerprint on all that He has made. I believe in the biblical account of God creating the heavens and the earth with His great wisdom and power, and I would love it if, in eternity, He would show us how that all unfolded. It would be a sitting on the edge of one's seat, action-adventure for sure! No special effects are needed.

 ‘Ah, Lord God! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm ... '

 — Jeremiah 32:17

One of the many reasons I love agates is the uniqueness of each one's banding patterns.

The Testimony of Rocks

The agate is identified predominantly by its parallel, congruent bands and is thought to be formed in the empty pockets of cooled lava. It is a testimony of how God creatively brings order, structure, beauty, and fulfillment out of emptiness and chaos. 

The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep ... Then God said ... 

 — Genesis 1:2-3 

 

During Christ's triumphal entry, the religious rulers of the time attempted to shush the crowd, lauding Jesus as the Creator King of the universe. Jesus' reply to the Pharisees was the following. 

“I tell you that if these should keep silent, the stones would immediately cry out." 

 — Luke 19:40 

How fascinating that the Hebrew word for stone is "eben" אֶבֶן. Its first two letters spell the Hebrew word for Father, av אָב, and its last two letters spell Son בֵּן. Father and Son overlap in this word. 

Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me ...

 — John 14:11

Both are noted as being the creative presence and power along with the Holy Spirit, as stated in Genesis chapter one.

 ... there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.

 — I John 2:23

If humanity only considered the following. 

‘The stone which the builders rejected Has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord’s doing, And it is marvelous in our eyes’?

 — Matthew 21:42

 A Poetic Interpretation

I see his blood upon the rose 

And in the stars the glory of his eyes, 

His body gleams amid eternal snows, 

His tears fall from the skies.

I see his face in every flower; 

The thunder and the singing of the birds 

Are but his voice—and carven by his power

Rocks are his written words. 

All pathways by his feet are worn, 

His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea, 

His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn, 

His cross is every tree. 

 — John and Mary Plunkett

 

A ruin, agate compliments of Jesse Ayers

 

Rocks Hear and Remember

These stones remembered and could testify to who He was. They recognized the voice of the words of the King of the universe who created them from the beginning and could playback (cry out) what was recorded in their substance from the beginning.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God ... the Word (Jesus) became flesh and dwelt among us. 

— John 1:1,14 

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth ... Then God said ... and there was. 

— Genesis 1:1,3

 Even the rocks understood the following.

All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 

 — I Corinthians 1:16-17

"I have here seen the power and glory of the Supreme Being. The majesty of His handiwork is in that testimony of the rocks" ~ Lafayette H. Bunnell ~ American physician, author, and explorer - Arizona fire agate.

Rocks are Credible Witnesses

Geologists have a saying, "Atmospheres and oceans forget, but rocks remember." This saying refers to how geologists theorize about the events that occurred during rock formation. Liquids and gases are constantly moving around, but solids stay the same. This fact makes the stone a reliable witness. This concept is demonstrated in an episode between Jacob and Laban.

Now therefore, come, let us make a covenant, you and I, and let it be a witness between you and me ... So Jacob took a stone and set it up as a pillar. Then Jacob said to his brethren, “Gather stones.” And they took stones and made a heap, and they ate there on the heap ... Then Laban said to Jacob ... This heap is a witness, and this pillar is a witness. 

 —Genesis 31:41-52

We think of sound as able to travel only through and into the atmosphere of air or a fluid. But quantum physics is now also considering that all matter has memory and is subject to the vibrational influences of sound waves and frequencies. This discovery is Biblically consistent with the possibility that rocks may hear, remember, record, and testify.

At the end of the book of Joshua, after the children of Israel began to settle in the land and conquer territory, Joshua calls the people to submit, commit, and covenant themselves to wholly and faithfully follow the Lord and Him only. After the people confess that they will, Joshua finds a large stone to be a witness to the covenant. He claims that it hears them.

Joshua wrote these words in the Book of the Law of God. And he took a large stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of the Lord. And Joshua said to all the people, “Behold, this stone shall be a witness to us, for it has heard all the words of the Lord which He spoke to us. It shall therefore be a witness to you, lest you deny your God.” 

 — Joshua 24:26-27

 The twelve memorial stones of Israel (Joshua 4)
Wikimedia Commons

Stones are Memorial Objects

Stones have long been used as ancient memorial objects, as shown in the Book of Joshua, when the children of Israel crossed over into the promised land.

 

Take for yourselves twelve stones ... these stones shall be for a memorial to the children of Israel forever. 

 — Joshua 4:3,7

The tablets of stone on which the Ten Commandments were written.

And let us not forget the most memorable tablets of stone given to Moses on Mount Sinai, which we are instructed throughout Deuteronomy not to forget. 

... the two tablets of the Testimony, tablets of stone, written with the finger of God. 

 — Exodus 31:18 

Finally, in the Old Testament, stone altars were built to commemorate an encounter with God, such as those of Noah, Abraham, Manoah, Gideon, and Jacob. 

Wikimedia Commons

Words are Things

It might be helpful for us to understand this concept of how an inanimate object can hear, record, and testify to something that appears to be inanimate if we realize that words are actual things. In Hebrew, the predominant word for "word" is "davar," which is sometimes translated as "thing." 

My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing (davar) that is gone out of my lips. 

 — Psalm 89:34 

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus spoke of words as things that come from the heart. There is nothing that enters a man from outside which can defile him; but the things which come out of him, those are the things that defile a man. 

— Mark 7:15

Matthews's version explains that the "things" that defile are things that come out of our mouths from within us. 

"Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man; but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man.” 

 — Matthew 15:11 

Concerning this, He also tells us the following. 

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. 

 — Luke 6:45

Here, we can see that words have substance and matter and are "things" that come from our hearts and exit our mouths. What comes out of our mouths is so full of substance that Jesus warns us to consider a future accounting for them. 

 ... every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. 

 — Matthew 12:36 

 It's as if Jesus warns us that everything we speak makes a difference, is heard, and is recorded for good or evil. Words are things that matter. 

Death and life are in the power of the tongue. 

 — Proverbs 18:21

Wikimedia Commons

A Relatable Excerpt About Words From a Billy Graham Devotional

The Power of Words 

There is a story of a woman in England who came to her vicar with a troubled conscience. The vicar knew her to be a habitual gossip—she had maligned nearly everyone in the village. “How can I make amends?” she pleaded. The vicar said, “If you want to make peace with your conscience, take a bag of goose feathers and drop one on the porch of each one you have slandered.” When she had done so, she came back to the vicar and said, “Is that all?” “No,” said the wise old minister, “you must go now and gather up every feather and bring them all back to me.” After a long time, the woman returned without a single feather. “The wind has blown them all away,” she said. “My good woman,” said the vicar, “so it is with gossip. Unkind words are easily dropped, but we can never take them back again.” 

Daily Prayer:  

Might my words about another be ones that are spoken in the spirit of Your loving kindness, Father. 

—Billy Graham devotional 

"Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in Your sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer" 

— Psalm 19:14

Seek the Gems in God's Word

In conclusion, I hope to inspire a diligent search for the precious gems waiting to be discovered in the truth of His Word. Every time you see a rock, I hope you will remember that it cries out and testifies that God, the creator of all things, is alive and well and worthy of our highest praise!

“You are worthy, O Lord, 

To receive glory and honor and power; 

For You created all things, 

And by Your will they and were created.” 

 — Revelation 4:11