Observation of a Stone

I just wanted to thank you for lending me your stone. I guess it’s really a piece of coral but I still think it is amazing! I can’t believe the detail of the structure of it – not only on the surface where it is visible but continuing right through the entire stone.

Isn’t that how it is with our lives? From the outside of a person, you can see some of the detail in peoples lives but just as each of the “circles” seems to spiral inwards and downwards, continuing that detail out of sight on your stone, so each of the visible aspects of the detail of a persons life e.g. personality, situations or circumstances they find themselves in, what people do, the way people react to things, etc., for everything that is seen, there is so much more detail that is hidden out of sight within that person that they choose not to share or talk about, their feelings that don’t show, etc. Even things that the individual doesn’t know about themselves, deep down at the centre.

Your stone is so unique – there could never be an identical stone. So, too, are peoples lives. With the exception of identical twins, each person’s genetic make up is very complex and unique. Even in the case of identical twins, just because a person has a gene doesn’t necessarily mean that it will be expressed e.g. when identical twins are born, sometimes only 1 twin has a cleft lip, etc. even though their genetic make up is identical. People’s immune systems are also unique too. That is the reason why some people can have side effects to certain medicines but others have no problems or some people are sensitive to or have allergies to certain things. Isn’t it amazing that God knows all the details of your stone – even the innermost parts that can’t be seen from the outside. In the same way, I find it very humbling to know that God knows all the details of my life – my genetic make up, my strengths and weaknesses, my thoughts and feelings, all the joy and pain in my life, everything, even the number of hairs on my head. And I’m not the only person he knows about!

Parts of your stone were damaged. Some parts had slight holes on the surface, other holes went deeper into the stone and some holes were so deep that they went completely through the stone and out the other side. I guess people’s lives can be damaged in many ways, for many different reasons and to different degrees – physically, mentally, emotionally, you may know more. Just as God knows all of the detail in our lives, he also knows all of the damaged parts too – more so even than we know ourselves. God’s desire is for us to be whole people and he loves us so much that he doesn’t want to leave us damaged as we are but longs to take us on and make us whole again. Although it may not be possible to put the detail back the way it was into the damaged areas, God can heal the pain and pour his love into the holes that are left. The scars in your stone permanently change the shape and appearance of the stone. Likewise, the scars in peoples lives have shaped that persons growth and development and changed the person they became. Although they may have caused us pain, God can still use our scars for his purposes if we allow him to (often in ways that we don’t realize).

I found your stone really helpful, thank you.