A New Purpose For A Plain Old Rock

 Every ranch kid (and ranch wife) has picked his or her share of rocks out of a hayfield

and I’m guessing most of those kids probably have no interest in picking up any rock for the fun of it, doing any rock hunting, or collecting rocks. We still drive past the rock piles where our kids had to dump the rocks they picked on summer days after a field was hayed.

I consider them our kids’ pillars of character building.

I’m not a rock hound but I’ve been known to pick up a rock now and then, while on an outdoor adventure. Not too long ago I learned about a new purpose for ordinary rocks from my dear friend Jane Green.

Jane is a farmwife, retired teacher and author/columnist who turns plain old rocks into what she calls “God Rocks.”

It all started one day while she was walking down the road near her farm. A couple of unusual rocks caught her eye and one looked like it had been cut into slices. Jane picked them up and hung onto them. For some reason she felt she needed to keep them so she washed them up when she got home and set them in her windowsill. Around the same time a couple of her friends were struggling with health issues and she didn’t know what she could do to help them. When she mentioned to her sister about her unusually smooth cut rock, her sister suggested writing a message on them. Jane knew right then what to do with the rocks she found and what to do for her friends. She wrote down her favorite Bible verse on the rocks and gave them to her friends needing support: Psalm 18:2.

“The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.”

(New International Version)

She has since given her rocks out to people needing encouragement or comfort. Not long after first meeting Jane, I received a “God Rock” from her in the mail, which sits on a shelf above my washing machine and dryer.

It’s my daily reminder of always having a dear friend who cares about and supports me, and that the Lord will always be my rock; the foundation of my life. I have since copied Jane’s gesture when I don’t know what else to do for people I’m concerned about.

I’ve kept a jar of neat-looking river rocks I found and kept from a family trip to Montana and now I give them out as “God Rocks” to people I feel need comfort and encouragement. I hope Jane’s story inspires you to look at ordinary rocks differently and pick one up. Use them as a wonderful, thoughtful gift that will remind someone how much you care about them and that the Lord can be their rock too.