Searching for Spring by Christine Hoover

Author:Christine Hoover
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Christian Living / Women;Christian women—Religious life;Aesthetics—Religious aspects—Christianity;Spirituality—Christianity;Spiritual life—Christianity;REL012130;REL012120
ISBN: 9781493412730
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2017-12-26T05:00:00+00:00

Stones of Promise

From the moment I got engaged to Kyle, all I could do was stare at the brilliant diamond on my ring finger. Anytime I got in the car to go anywhere, I’d drive with my hands on the top of the steering wheel just so I could gaze at the diamond at every stoplight. Sitting in church, I’d listen to the sermon while simultaneously moving my hand so the bright lights glaring down from the ceiling could catch the diamond and make it sparkle.

I looked at the rock on my finger every chance I could get, partly because I’d never had anything like it in my life but mostly because it represented the promise of what was to come: a wedding day and a marriage.

My engagement ring was and still is a stone of promise.

As we wait for our Groom, God has given us stones to look at: promises of what is to come and what he’s doing in the meantime while we wait. Most importantly, perhaps, are the promises made and kept, stones of surety that have been made into altars. They’ve been erected and scattered throughout time, precisely so we’d see and remember and wait forward with faith.

The flood turned to a rainbow of promise. And then Noah built a stone altar to the Lord, because the Lord had done it.

Hatred and war turned to victory. And then Moses built a stone altar to the Lord, because the Lord had done it.

Sin was atoned for through blood. And then Aaron made sacrifices on the stone altar of the Lord, because the Lord had done it.

A plague birthed from pride was averted. And then David built a stone altar to the Lord, because the Lord had done it.

Jerusalem, the beauty of God, and her exiles were restored from complete rubble and ruin. And then Jeshua and Zerubbabel built an altar to the Lord, because the Lord had done it.4

Stones of hope rise up to meet us as we consider who, in the story of time, has been capable of such things. Who has kept promises completely? Who’s given victory in war? Who has held the ability to forgive sins? Who’s restored what seemed forever in disrepair? Who’s turned death to life?

Whose work brought repentant prostitutes and idol-worshipers into the family tree of Jesus? Whose work made the barren full with child? Who ordered nations and people and rulers to certain places at certain times for specific purposes? Who caused a Persian king to lose sleep, setting in motion the salvation of an entire people group?5

This Builder is the same one you know. Stone upon stone—and he is still building a work of art with us. We see the incomplete construction, but we can look at what’s already complete so we might wait well.

What is undone is wrenching. There are altars yet to be built and some that hold our greatest pain, and we are surrendered and yet squirming in unrest and uncertainty.

Even those who see Jesus face-to-face

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