The children were playing a game on the sea shore,

who could find the whitest stone?

“Here’s one!”

“This one’s whiter!”

“No, wait! This is whiter still.”

“Keep looking. I think that one over there is perfectly white.”

They came to me with their hands full of stones,

why aren’t you playing our game, they asked

But I was staring at the mighty ocean

the one that had delivered the stones to the shore

and tumbled them round, scrubbing them clean of their impurities.

When I didn’t answer

they threw their stones at me.

I didn’t mind

because at least now, their hands were empty

and they had abandoned their foolish game.

Then, while they were watching

I walked forward into the great sea

plunging, headfirst, beneath the waves

thinking I might drown

before my impurities were washed away

I panicked

but the voice of the Almighty waters spoke truth to me

and bore me up so that I endured the pounding surf, the swirling currents, and

the unknown.

When, at last, the great ocean,

tossed me back at the children’s feet,

I was the whitest stone.

Most of them just shrugged their shoulders

and went on about their game

but one stared at me for a long, long time

then turned, walked forward, and gave herself over to the mighty sea.

Matthew 10: 38-39 “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.  Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

John 10: 22-21“At that time the Feast of Dedication took place at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was walking in the temple, in the colonnade of Solomon.  So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me,  but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep.  My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.”  The Jews picked up stones again to stone him.

1 Peter 2:5 “ you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.”

Revelation 2: 17 “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.”

Psalm 42:7-8  “Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.”