Rocks

 

Rocks

There is a quote from novelist Wallace Stegner I spotted on the wall in the SLC airport yesterday.

“The brook would lose its song if we removed the rocks." 

After a trying and yet faith-promoting week, the day before I had been walking toward a waterfall letting the cool mountain air and warm spring sunshine slowly melt the tension from my shoulders and neck.  The sound of the water bubbling and rushing over the stones in the stream next to me had caused me to pause and watch in wonder as it dipped and splashed over and around the rocks, smoothed of their rough edges over time.

The stones of life, including both positive and negative experiences (and those that somehow fit into both) are literally what makes our song ours. 

They stretch us and grow us, sometimes tripping us and we fall.  

But other times allowing us to skip joyfully from rock to rock.

And still others providing an elevated view that wasn’t available from below. 

Elder Richard G Edgley did not call them rocks or stones but he did testify about what I would  call those spiritual and physical rocks of mortality.

He said, “I believe we all understood that by coming to earth, we would be exposed to all of the experiences of earth life, including the not-so-pleasant trials of pain, suffering, hopelessness, sin, and death. There would be opposition and adversity. And if that was all we knew about the plan, I doubt if any of us would have embraced it, rejoicing, “That’s what I have always wanted—pain, suffering, hopelessness, sin, and death.” But it all came into focus, and it became acceptable, even desirable, when an Elder Brother stepped forward and offered that He would go down and make it all right. 

Out of pain and suffering He would bring peace. 

Out of hopelessness He would bring hope. 

Out of transgression He would bring repentance and forgiveness. 

Out of death He would bring the resurrection of lives. 

And with that explanation and most generous offer, each and every one of us concluded, “I can do that. That is a risk worth taking.” And so we chose.”

We knew that Jesus Christ would help us and that the song of our individual brook would become more beautiful with the stones.

We chose, because we know and trust Him, and His refining process.