the story of a rock

The rock I'm sitting on here is no ordinary rock.

Eons ago it was used for mounting horses.

For me in my grade school years, it was a gymnastic apparatus for doing aerials off of into the grass.

In my teenage and college years, it was for good old fashioned sitting.  Sitting and dreaming, that is.  When you sit on it facing away from the house, you face the west, and beyond a fencerow of buttercups and beautiful farm fields and hills are majestic sunsets.  Purest recipe for dreaming if there ever was one.

I'd think about what I could be.  I'd wonder about Prince Charming.  Ya know, the typical stuff.

I also sat there when I was sad or angry or hurting.  There's something about this spot that opens up my heart and invites it to pour out.  I did a lot of talking to God on this rock.  I'd cry to Him.  I'd share excitement with Him.  Sometimes I would just sit in silence because I was either so broken or my heart was so full that I felt any words out of my mouth would be too inadequate and because I knew that just sitting and simply feeling Him would be much better.

There was also the time I was halfway proposed to on this rock, which no one knows about.  It was in high school and he said, "If we make it through college together, will you marry me?"  Looking back now I laugh at the lukewarm sentiment in that question.  At the time it was both romantic and scary.  Needless to say, I didn't marry him.

It took me until almost the third decade of my life, but it finally hit me as I was looking at this picture today... This rock... this rock was the place I went to be with the Rock.  My true Rock and Savior.  I don't often take time to thank God for pieces of the physical earth like dirt and bushes, but for this rock I am forever grateful.

God, thank You for this odd little place in the side yard of the magical home I grew up in,

for this rock that so many times healed my heart, that allowed me to think bigger, to figure stuff out, to cry out to You, to wait for You, to share my joy and tears with You.

Thank You for this rock that strengthened my soul every time I sat down.

And may all the future souls who sit on this rock experience nothing less.