I began my fascination with rocks at an early age. If we travelled anywhere, I would scour the surrounding area for stones that were unique. It could be the shape, the texture, or the colour. I’m sure my mom wasn’t impressed when she did the laundry, only to find that the noise from the washing machine was coming from the various sized stones still in the pockets of my jeans!

I get the interest in rocks honestly. My grandfather was a railway engineer. Sometimes the train had to wait for a slide to be cleared off the tracks. I still have a chunk of raw asbestos and the diamond-like quartz that he brought me from the mountains!

I’m much older now, but my fascination with rocks hasn’t really diminished much. Why do they have such an attraction to me? Because every stone has a story; every rock proclaims its Creator!

Before his death, and after the children of Israel had possessed the land, Joshua called all the people together for a rededication assembly. This was a critical moment for the people of God, and Joshua knew it. He encouraged them to put away any foreign gods and to serve the Lord only, and they promised they would. In response Joshua set up a large stone and declared:

“See! This stone will be a witness against us. It has heard all the words the Lord has said to us. It will be a witness against you if you are untrue to your God.” (Joshua 24:27)

This large stone had “heard” the vows, and its very presence stood as a testimony—a “material witness” to the covenant the people had made before God.

If the stones in Joshua’s day were silent witnesses, by the time we get to Luke 19, that silence is ready to break. As Jesus descended the Mount of Olives, the air was filled with the roar of “Hosanna!” When the Pharisees (self-appointed judges of the law) demanded that Jesus silence the crowd, He pointed to the very ground they stood on.

“I tell you,” He replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40).

Jesus was practically saying that the evidence of His Lordship is so overwhelming that if the human witnesses were silent, the material witnesses would have to take the stand. The “hearing” stones of Joshua’s time would become the “shouting” stones of Jerusalem. Creation itself cannot remain neutral when the Creator is passing by.

The texture, the colour, and the very existence of every rock I collected as a boy are all part of a grand, geological testimony that has been building since the beginning of time. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be outdone by a rock. “Hosanna, Hosanna to the King of kings.” I will join all creation in proclaiming the name of Jesus!