Barabas is looking at Mrs. Potato Head’s collection of stones.  She has some of them is this big pot.  But some of them are too big for the pot. Many of them came from other countries around the world.  These came from China!  This one came from Germany.  This one came from France and this one came from Israel!  This one is from Ireland!

Barabas tried to lift the one from France.  It’s really heavy! 

“Hmmmm . . .” thought Barabas.  “This one from Mexico is one that is nice and smooth.  I could throw this one.”  And he pretended to throw it. 

Then Barabas remembered one time when he was younger, he threw a rock at Lamar!  Now he is so ashamed when he remembers that incident.  Fortunately, Lamar was not hurt, but even so, Barabas knew as soon as he threw that rock, that throwing rocks at a person is a bad thing to do.

You know, sometimes in the Bible, stoning was used as a form of the death penalty!  They would actually stone someone until they died.  What a terrible way to use stones.  What a terrible way to die!  That is what happened to Stephen in the Bible lesson from this morning.  Stephen said a prayer; “Please God, forgive these men for stoning me.”  And then he died . . .

“Hmmm . . .” thought Barabas.  “Stones are not bad.  It is the way people use them that can be bad.”  And he thought about that for awhile. 

“Stones are not bad or good.  They are just stones.  They are not alive.”

“What if these stones were alive and doing a GOOD thing, what is it they would do?”  

Barabas said out loud “I think the stones could show the way like a cairn does on a trail.”  One time when Barabas and Uncle Floyd went hiking up in New Hampshire, and they so high in the mountains that there were no trees growing and everything was rock. Up there they saw piles of rocks called cairns.  Cairns show where the trail is going.  You hike from one cairn to the next cairn.  So rocks in a CAIRN are doing a good thing.

So Barabas piled up the rocks like a cairn.  And then he saw that if he put the flat stones in a pile and put the pointy rock from France on top it looks like a church!  He tore a piece of yellow paper into the shape of a cross and put it on his church.   A church is a really GOOD thing for rocks and stones to be.

In 1 Peter we heard that WE should be like “living stones and let ourselves be built into a spiritual house.”

Barabas concluded “I guess that means that IF I were a stone and IF I was alive, it would be really neat if I would lead the other stones and TOGETHER we would build ourselves into a church.”

Now, you might think that a church is built with stones and bricks and such.  But a church is REALLY built with people, like you and me who are like living stones that make the church.

 ♫         The church is not a building,  The church is not a steeple, 
          The church is not a  resting place,  The church is the people!

          I am the church, you are the church!  We are the church together.
          All of God’s people, all around the world.  Yes we’re the church together!      

THE END

Printer friendly copy of this story