Sunday, April 6, 2014

The stone rejected... becomes the keystone...

Psalm 118:21-24 
I thank you that you have answered me
and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the LORD’s doing;
it is marvelous in our eyes.
This is the day that the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.

Building God,
the psalm's claim that
"The stone that the builders rejected
has become the chief cornerstone."
made no sense to me
until I was on a build site in Mexico.

We were building a simple concrete house;
it looked like a mansion
compared to the neighboring houses
whose walls were made of ramshackle boxes,
even an old box spring mattress.

The construction was simple cinderblock walls.
The revelation came
after the gull wing roof was in place.
Each gap had to be filled,
like fitting pieces of a puzzle with no picture.
The puzzle pieces were small rocks,
the broken blocks at our feet,
the very stones that we, the builders,
had once rejected
became just the right keystone
to hold it all together.

Lord,
I learned that day
that you choose to use
what I considered cast off or waste
to be the capstone in building your kingdom.


Open my eyes today
that I may see all around me
the very people and acts you are using
to build your house among us,
small and broken though we may be.
This is the Lord's doing;
This is how God works!
It is marvelous in our eyes!"
Amen.

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