I’m getting stoned today. Ha!  Got your attention, didn’t I? 🙂

Today our contractor is coming to put in stacked stone around the fireplace and tv opening.  Yummy, real stone that will have various browns and tans and grays in different textures.  I cannot wait!  Then he is going to finish it off with a custom reclaimed wood mantle.  The woodsy, rustic feel. You can take the girl out of the cabin, but you can’t take the cabin out of the girl!!!! I’m hoping it will just make the room incredibly cozy when we fire up the fireplace for winter. Yippee!!!!

Thinking about stone made me think about Jesus’ friend, Peter.  He changed his name from Simon to Peter, which means “Rock”, because he was to be used as a stone upon which the church would be built.  Figuratively speaking, of course :-).

Peter has always been a character that I could relate to.  And he was, indeed, a character!  Always rushing ahead, speaking before thinking, reacting emotionally, making rash decisions which turned into rash actions.  He was the one that denied that he even knew Jesus three times in one night, at the time when Jesus needed his friends most.  He was far from refined.  Far from perfect.  But he had a passionate heart.  A heart that truly loved his Friend and Lord.

After Jesus rose from the dead and in His last days with his friends, Jesus asked Peter a question. “Do you truly love me?”  He asked it three times.  And by the third time, it says that Peter was hurt that Jesus was asking three times, especially when He already knew the answer.  Each time Peter’s answer was the same, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”  And every time, Jesus would say, “Feed my lambs/sheep.”  Jesus was asking him to care for the ones He was leaving him to take care of and shepherd.

In John 13:34-35, Jesus says, “A new commandment I give you; Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another.”

Then in chapter 14 verse 15 He says, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.”  And what did command?  That we love one another.

So when He asked Peter three times (does this correlate with the three times Peter denied Him?  I don’t know…) if he loved Him, He was emphasizing each time that this meant to love those whom he would shepherd.  And it’s not just for the benefit of Peter’s (and ours) fellow believers.  It’s so that those who are not yet friends of Jesus would see the love and be drawn to it themselves.  Jesus wants all people to come to know Him.  And in loving Him and loving each other, we can be a part of the excitement of sharing the love of Jesus with the world.

I love how, again, God used an unlikely source, Peter, to spread His gospel, to lead the church.  In spite of his quirkiness.  In spite of his failures and mistakes.  In spite of his quick tongue and short fuse.  And in the process of Peter helping to change the world, he was being changed himself.

Isn’t that awesome?  That means that God can use a quirky, flawed, impulsive girl like me, too.  And while He’s using me, He is changing and refining me.  Gently rubbing off some of the rough edges.  And teaching me to “love one another” in new and meaningful ways.

So, as I watch my hearth being built, I will be thankful that God uses so many different types of rocks, or “Peters” to build his church.  Different shapes, sizes, textures, colors.  Different gifts, abilities, strengths and personalities.  And that the piece that brings it all together was a Savior on a piece of wood, “reclaiming” us as His own.  I will never look at my fireplace the same way again.  And may the fire within us never stop burning….