The Rock

"The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! 

Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior!..."

2 Samuel 22:47

It was a rock. Small, brown, with lovely white veining. And it was special because the veining looked just like a cross.

Shelby found it in the river where we had gone to swim. And because I admired it, she gave it to me. I put it in my pocket as we got back to the church and things began to hustle-bustle and I forgot all about it.

We were in Ojeto, Utah in Monument Valley, doing Vacation Bible School at the Navajo United Methodist Church. After dinner and fellowship time, we ended our day with devotions, laying on our backs on a mesa looking at the stars by firelight. Beyond amazing.

I fell into bed, which was a cot with a sleeping bag and tossed and turned all night trying to get comfortable on that thing. Tomorrow was our last day in Ojeto and I was bound and determined to get up early enough to get out on the mesa to see the sunrise.

At 6 am, armed with a hot cup of coffee and my Bible, I trekked on out and found a quiet place to sit so I could watch, read, and pray. After watching this incredible event, seeing the world start a new day, I opened my Bible, but wasn't sure what to read. I decided, since I was basically sitting on a rock, I would check my concordance and read about rocks.

So the thing about rocks, especially big ones, is that they don't move. They sit in all kinds of weather --- beautiful serene weather and wild loud storms. No matter how hard the wind blows they don't move. I read that God was my rock, my deliverer, and I realized He was solid, unmovable, unchangeable and He offered protection.

"There is no one holy like the Lord; there is no one besides you;

there is no Rock like our God. ..."

1 Samuel 2:2

On my way back to the church I explained all this to a friend thinking that God had given me a message and I needed to share it.

When I got back to my unmade bed, covers twisted every which way, there, on the very top, right in the middle sat the rock from the river. I have no idea how it got there... fell out of my pocket? How did it not fall off the bed in the middle of the night? I will never know. No matter. All I know is this, that rock confirmed my thoughts of His words directly spoken to me. And now I share them with you.

Linda Tomlinson