40 Ways My Labyrinth is Like My Life--#11

11. It has pretty stones, and not-so-pretty stones.

Funny thing about stones. They seem to be so symbolic for so many people. From earliest times, stones were set up as memorials--that is, to stand and symbolically hold people's memories. On a grand scale, we have stele in Egypt which are carved with the victories and spoils of ancient kings, stone circles like Stonehenge, as well as giant pyramids, which may mark the passing of astronomical time or mark religious rituals and ceremonies, or newer memorials such as the monoliths and statues in our cities and capitals. On a smaller scale, we have the stones Joshua had the Israelites bring with them out of the Jordan and set up on the bank (Joshua 3), the Mizpah stone Laban and Jacob set up (Genesis 31), various stone altars all over the world, gravestones and mausoleums, boulders in people's yards, and the twelve stones on the Jewish High Priest's breastplate (Exodus 28). And on an even more individual scale, people today carry and wear memorial stones from engagement to anniversary rings, and can even have the ashes of loved ones made into diamonds as a permanent remembrance.

It's as if we feel that something so permanent and apparently static as a stone ought to be able to hold onto a memory long after our ephemeral human brains are dim, or gone entirely.

One labyrinth practice is to pick up a stone on the way in, to represent a burden you are carrying and want to let go of. You carry this stone to the center and prayerfully leave it there. You can also pick up a stone once you reach the center and carry it out with you, to represent a charge you feel God is calling you to take up.

In my labyrinth, I have made a point of providing stones that are pretty, smooth, and patterned, as well as stones that are heavy, dark, and irregular, so that one may choose according to inclination and need. You never really know until the moment which one you'll choose. Often the pretty ones are less important than the not-so-pretty ones. Like Christ, the stone that the builders rejected but which became the chief cornerstone (Matthew 21:43, 43; see Isaiah 28:16).

Master Builder, remove my stony heart and build me on the true, deep bedrock of your love.