The Real Tombstone

Take a deep breath and relax. Close your eyes. Wait, forget that, you need to keep them open so you can finish reading this. Relax and picture yourself standing over a mountain lake. The water is crystal clear although you’re not at Camp Crystal Lake. The tall majestic southern pines provide cool shade on a warm afternoon. The smell of spring is in the air. Wild flowers are blooming and butterflies dance like fairies across the picturesque sky. Just a few bright, puffy clouds can be seen in the distance. Kneeling, you pick up a small, flat stone. Rubbing the dirt away, you fling the stone into the flat water – it skips once, twice, three times before sinking. You pick up another. This time it skips five times. Take another deep breath.

If you’re like me, you loved skipping rocks when you were a kid. It didn’t matter where – Mobile Bay, Big Creek Lake, Chickasabogue Creek, or even a ditch. Water was water and skipping rocks was cool. Even now, when I’m around the water, I look for a rock. Rocks are important when you’re a kid. I remember collecting them; pretending they were made of solid gold.

The Bible is full of references to rocks. In fact, Jesus is called the Rock of Salvation, the Rock of Refuge and the Spiritual Rock. There are too many references to list but here are a few: Psalm 18:1-3, 27:5, Proverbs 30:19, I Corinthians 10:4 and Matthew 16:18 when Jesus tells Peter upon his faith the Church will be established.

The Bible even tells us that the rocks will cry out in praise if we don’t. Can you imagine that - rocks singing the praise of the Father in our place? There’s one particular rock I wonder about. The one that sealed Christ’s tomb. That rock was rolled away. I wonder if it sang praise to the risen Lord as His resurrection power touched it. It must have! After all, don’t we cry out with praise when His resurrection power touches us? I just have to believe that rock felt His presence and couldn’t help but unleash praise!

So the next time you’re close to a body of water, look for a rock. Sling it into the water. Every time it skips, shout hallelujah as His resurrection power touches you again.