A Stone in His Hand

We were cruising along the lake path on Sunday afternoon when Joshua spotted a weed–framed gully filled with murky water. The crooning frogs begged us to pause and investigate their shadowy home where water bugs danced. We parked our wheels in the grass and hunched down along the puddle’s edge.

While Joshua stirred the grime with a fallen tree branch, I grabbed a dusty gray stone and tossed it into the water with a plop. Brown ripples stretched out across the liquid mire.

“That looked like Mickey Mouse!” Joshua exclaimed as he pointed to the wobbly circles moving across the surface of the muddy pool.
“Let me try!”

We scavenged for a pocketful of rocks and settled ourselves on the perimeter of the watery canvas. One by one, we flung the rocks into the frogs’ humble home. As Maggie applauded the plops and plinks, we listened to the satisfying resonance of water making way for soaring stones.

We studied the ripples as one might study the puffy images in the changing clouds. Then as Joshua rolled the last stone across his petite palm, he turned to me with probing green eyes. “Do you think God sees the pictures in the plop?”

My mouth echoed my heart’s gleeful laugher as I considered the marvelous thought. I rumpled my youngest son’s windblown hair. “Definitely,” I answered more for myself than for the inquiring mind beside me.

As we traded the gully’s edge for the smooth paved path, I thought about a Creator who sees pictures in the plop. And I realized that my young son had just reminded me of yet another reason to leave the pen in my Author-Father’s capable hands. Where I see a ditch of failure, He sees a gully of grace. Where I see currents of confusion, He sees waves of possibility. Where I see a plunk in a puddle, He sees a beautiful picture in the plop. His story ripples throughout eternity  One poignant plop after another.

The Overflow:  “He knows us far better than we know ourselves…  That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.” -Romans 8:28, The Message