Living Stones

Last year when I was so frustrated at work I started researching not only other jobs in my field, but other fields, and taking to heart what so many people have told me, that I have a knack for layout. "If there was a job where I could spend all day formatting Word documents to make them attractive, I'd be happy," I would say-- knowing that there is such a thing as graphic design, wondering if I would be able to make it through the black & white and color design classes my mother took at the local community college when I was a kid.  I looked into the graphic design curriculum at that school... Typography classes... Drawing... Fundamentals of Design... Digital Illustration... Design for the Web... 

Then I got the idea for a quilt I made for Mom this Christmas... starting with the quilted labyrinth in the center, using some of the many batik squares I've had for several years, begging to be made into something-- attempting to arrange them both light to dark and on the spectrum from warm to cool / dull to bright in water, air, fire and earth.  This is only the second quilt I've made, and I enjoyed figuring out how to make it work, given my limitations (lack of knowledge/experience and also a distaste for precision, measuring and taking great care).  I want to do something new, but I don't have a burning idea, like the labyrinth.

So at church last week when I saw an announcement of an art show to be held in May I was immediately intrigued...  but the theme left me cold: "Living Stones".  I didn't even know what that meant.  I could think of lots of important biblical stones...

-       the pillar of stones that Jacob sets up in Genesis

-       the stone tablets with 10 commandments

-       many, many people being stoned for their sins (Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy)

-       the stones that represent the 12 tribes of Israel (Joshua)

-       the stone David used to fell Goliath

-       "the stone that the builder rejected has become the chief cornerstone"

-       the devil tempting Jesus to turn stones to bread

-       the stone rolled away from entrance to Jesus’ tomb

-       "let he who is without sin throw the first stone"

-       "upon this rock I will build my church"

-       "who among you, if your child asks for bread, will give him a stone"

...but I couldn't think of any that had that "living stones" image.

So, like my parents' daughter (only without the need to whip out that huge hardbound Exhaustive Concordance), I searched for every "stone" reference in the old and new testaments, and came upon this from Habakkuk:

Habakkuk 2

⁹“Alas for you who get evil gain for your houses, setting your nest on high to be safe from the reach of harm!” ¹⁰You have devised shame for your house by cutting off many peoples; you have forfeited your life. ¹¹The very stones will cry out from the wall, and the plaster will respond from the woodwork.  ¹²“Alas for you who build a town by bloodshed, and found a city on iniquity!” ¹³Is it not from the Lord of hosts that peoples labor only to feed the flames, and nations weary themselves for nothing? ¹⁴But the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

and this from  1 Peter:

 

1 Peter 2

Rid yourselves, therefore, of all malice, and all guile, insincerity, envy, and all slander. ²Like newborn infants, long for the pure, spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow into salvation— ³if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good.

4 Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and ⁵like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶For it stands in scripture:
‘See, I am laying in Zion a stone,
   a cornerstone chosen and precious;
and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’
⁷To you then who believe, he is precious; but for those who do not believe,
‘The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the very head of the corner’,
⁸and
‘A stone that makes them stumble,
   and a rock that makes them fall.’
They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.
¹⁰ Once you were not a people,
   but now you are God’s people;
once you had not received mercy,
   but now you have received mercy. 

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I've sketched a couple of ideas here, but they are all quite literal, and based on the "rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God's sight" piece... those are the lines that mean something to me.

Mom says this image has been meaningful to her, and that she will send me some other verses, from Paul, that expand on the "spiritual house" idea-- the continuing incarnation, the idea that Jesus is the cornerstone of the church and we are all the stones.  I get that, but it doesn't have meaning for me.  Not right now.  

The best I've got is that hand game children do-- "This is the church, this is the steeple, open the doors-- see all the people!" -- coupled with that singsongy "I am the church, you are the church, we are the church together..."