I’m doing a lot of walking at the moment, trying to get my step count up – I’m taking part in a virtual challenge where a group of us try and virtually walk the 7 peak challenge in July. It averages out at 19,000 steps a day each, so lots of walking…
Anyway, as part of this we get daily reflections so as I walk I’m focusing on God. Well, yesterday I saw a very attractive pebble. You know the type, smooth and round, nice to look at, comfortable to hold. A really nice pebble. So I picked it up and walked with it in my hand. I noticed how it warmed up as the heat of my hand surrounded it. It struck me that God’s love is like that. It gets transferred to us like the heat to that pebble.
Then I opened my hand and the pebble quickly cooled down. And my pebble analogy fell flat. Because then I began thinking how unlike the pebble and hand God’s love was.
Because unlike a pebble, we are not inanimate objects that sit passively in someone’s hand waiting for them to decide what to do. We are partners. Minor partners perhaps, but active partners. Jesus says in John’s Gospel ‘you may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.” We are not brainless pebbles, we have a heart and a brain.
And we are not some unimportant pebble which will be tossed away when we become boring, or a burden. 1 John 3 says that we are children of God who are lavishly loved. And there’s a wonderful passage in Isaiah 43 which says:
Do not fear for, I have redeemed you: I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Saviour
Isaiah 43: 1-3
So those times when we feel like we sitting on the open palm, or we have been thrown aside, that’s not true. God is always there, we will not become a burden to him. He will not become bored of our drama (or lack of!) – he has claimed us, he loves us and he walks with us through the fire and the water and whatever else we end up walking through.
Just something to remember: God’s love surrounds us always and doesn’t run out. We are his children.
We are not pebbles. (Not even really nice smooth pebbles) We are much more valuable than that.
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