Rock Piles & Dying Stories

For three days, God, You have put altar piles before my eyes, so I decided to blog about it.

When I googled altar of stones for a fitting illustration, I found everything from Andy Warhol's rendition of the Rolling Stones tongue-hanging-out logo to a marble bust of Sharon Stone; I found everything from current, poorly-shot photos of people's in-home altars-- where one amateur's knick-knacks are another man's spiritually meaningful symbols--to the carefully crafted shots of altars found in archaeological digs--where experts are busy "...decoding ancient stone monuments."

And none of this was what you'd taken me to the stone piles to see. So I built my altar pile in my own mind, and here is what I see. First, I see that the rocks are gathered for the sake of remembering things that should not be forgotten. This is the most important thing about the pile.

Pro 22:28
Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.
Pro 23:10
Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless.

I think now of a dream I had, and told of here--my favorite dream. In it, I climbed into a unique upper storey of a house. Clothes instead of stones were what was piled in heaps everywhere in the strange wooden place of this dream. Above this place, via a hidden passage, was a magnificent and spacious apartment, lavish and well-kept despite it's uninhabited status. I was the first to find it, but I knew I was not to be the last.

On Friday, I went to pick my child up from a birthday party held in a refurbished log cabin. The children wanted us to see this unique house--and climbing to view the upper storey gave me a strong impression of being in this life's stage-setting for a re-enactment of that dream. It put me almost to the entrance of that amazing mansion hidden in realms above, and I hold my breath at the thought that this might be a true interpretation.

But for now, I pile stones.

The first stone is formed by the story we heard in chapel on Friday. It was the story from Gen. 31 of the building of a pile of rocks to serve as a reminder between two men who were for 20 years each others' almost enemies. Jacob and Laban were hard-pressed to co-exist, but the rock pile they built was called "witness heap" and "watchtower" as a sign of a final covenant of peace between them.

The second stone is more personal, but of much the same material as the first. For days now--as blog entries show--at least since Easter, I have had speckled things occupying space in my conscious mind. I dreamed of speckled animals. I was given as a gift a set of seven speckled eggs. They sit in a pottery dish on my dining room table, etc. And in this same chapter of Genesis, Jacob knew it was finally time to be set free of his father-in-law's tyranny and injustice when God sent him a dream telling him it was time to move on, a dream in which God reminded him of the speckled-markings that indicated the animals that were his rightful inheritance, his God-ordained inheritance. Due to the dream, Jacob left, under secrecy, until he was three days gone. At that point, Laban caught him. But God also led Laban through a dream, such that in the end "...they took stones and piled them in a heap, and they ate there by the heap," in a covenant meal of peace.

We followed that Bible story's retelling with a passing of the peace of our own--a sharing of bread. We spoke of many things the sharing of bread might signify, but for me it was this: it was taking that which the Spirit of God has put within me--what is the nature of Christ within me by divine dispensation through grace--and sharing it with another, and receiving that same Christ from him/her. Early Christians described this absorption of each others' new-life-in-Christ essence by the term "communion of the saints." It is a thing destined to be a beautiful part of our communal experience when we enter the next life. Christ prayed "that they may be one even as We are one" in hope that we would know deep soul intimacy not only with Him but with each other. Such is His profound humility and open heart. For me, this bread sharing symbolized that future state of being. Like a foreshadowing of the wedding feast of the Lamb, we became one in the exchange of bread, in the exchange of Him.

The first piece I broke off my roll and shared was with a friend who serves as the Christ figure in the school. And interestingly, we ate our bread in honor of his wife, who is currently estranged both from him and from the faith. Still, he thanked me for making her feel welcome and special and important. And we ate in faith that all would be well with her in the end. The last piece I exchanged with another friend, exchanged interestingly for his own last piece...and this time the prayer was for our children--boys whose own stories are like seedlings, ones that seem to show potential to have their own fruit to bear--fruits that may ripen toward the taste of friendship's bond that was evident in the lives of David and Jonathan. We prayed that such love might be a thing of strength, a thing that would continue to another generation even through the lives of such as these two little ones.

A third stone was piled that day. I sat next to a young woman--I've spoken of her here before. When I exchanged imaginary bread with her (because we were both completely out of bread by the time we found each other) and when I prayed for her, I told her I saw her as a beautiful gemstone set in the foundation of the city of God. This was the picture I saw for her when I prayed. She, too, was part of a pile of stones for remembering. She showed me that a friend of hers had given her a bracelet that morning. It was like a charm bracelet, only it was hung all around with colorful bits of stone and quartz, as well as a hammered silver piece engraved with the words: "...as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord..." a quote taken from the verse that goes: Jos 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that [were] on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

And so this girl is a type of an altar within an altar. And that was a beautiful part of the story, too.

And while this book of the Bible that she took me to bridges the gap to another pile of stones that were brought up from the depths for remembering today, stones are nevertheless heavy things that take time to move and consider. These stones are enough for now, and the rest aren't going anywhere. (smile)