Everyone Needs the Rock

My grandfather, Henry Alderson Brady, collected rocks.  He spent hours on his farm searching for all sorts of rocks–arrow heads, rocks with fossils embedded in them and unusual, funny shaped rocks that resembled animals or other objects  In the late 1930's or early 40's he dug a pond on the back of his farm, and found a very large rock that looked like a dinosaur or a horse.  I thought it looked more like a rhinoceros.  My grandfather hooked it up to a team of mules and drug it from the holler to his house where he displayed it in his front yard.  The  rock sits in that spot to this day.  

My grandfather died when I was 5 years old.   My dad was able to secure the house from his siblings.  In that transaction we not only got a house and a farm, but we also got a big rock. The rock has been quite an attraction from the time it was placed in the yard..  Passerby's were always stopping to pose for pictures in front of the rock which stands almost 6 feet tall.  Family and friends enjoyed taking pictures in front of that old rock during the years that my family owned the home place. The rock was more than a backdrop for photo ops.  It was a dinosaur, a rhinoceros or a horse on which my friends, and I played. My brother and his friends and  many grandchildren, nieces and nephews also spent hours playing on it.  I guess hundreds of children had fun on the rock over the years.  

The rock was many things.  It would be whatever our imaginations willed it to be.  Very often it would be our home base when we played tag.  If one of us was being chased, we would be safe if we made it to the rock without being tagged– safe, secure, out of danger from being “it”.  The rock, a place of refuge for anyone  being pursued.

It was really neat growing up in a place where we owned such a wonderful rock.  Not every kid had a big rock in his front yard. My mother sold the place after she got to where she could not maintain her home. So I no longer have access to  that rock.   But you know, I do have a Rock.  My Rock is Jesus.   David talked about him in Psalms 18:2.  “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge… LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer…”   

Jesus, our Redeemer, is indeed our Rock.  We need the Rock because we are being pursued daily.  There is one who is trying to destroy us, who is chasing us like a vicious lion after his prey.  Our only hope of escaping this cunning pursuer is to find safety in the Rock.   If we don’t come to the Rock the evil one will overtake us, and pull us down into the depths of despair and hopelessness.  Run to the Rock, and he will lift you up. He will give you a safe place to stand.  Come to the Rock where you will always be safe and secure.  Jesus, the Rock, is our only refuge.