Let's Pick Some Rocks

"For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven..." Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV

Good Morning Girlfriends:

Every spring there would be rocks all over the lawn from the winters snow that had been plowed over onto the lawn. My dad would give my sister and I a little bucket and we would go pick rocks off the lawn so the lawnmower would not fetch up on them and bend the blades. That was the extent of my rock picking days, but I listen to a lady tell her story of her and a bunch of kids going out into the farmers field to pick rocks.

Rock picking is certainly not a glamorous job, but somebody has to do it and it is one that does have to be done. She explained how the farmer would round up a bunch of the kids in the community to come to his farm and "pick rock," but it wasn't just one rock there were hundreds of rocks to be picked. She said all of the children sat on the back of the flatbed truck as the farmer drove through the field, and when they saw a rock, they would hop off, run to grab it and hollered "Rock!" before tossing it onto the trailer. They had to warn the others to give them time to jump off so the rock could be tossed up on the trailer.

The next year the same group of children would return to do it all over again. Each year after the winter months and the frost comes out of the ground, the rock emerge to the top of the ground, some farmers have said it is winter's way of healing the land, and the land can't heal without winter.

Girlfriends, I believe this is the same for each of us, we all need the winter seasons to heal us and let the winter's frost emerge some rock like burdens that may be embedded in the soil of our hearts. Most people would rather live in the beautiful spring, summer and fall months rather than the long dreary winter ones. Our key verse that wise King Solomon was talking about is that the human experience unfolds over all seasons, not only our favorite ones. In Ecclesiastes 3, he writes that each life is a passage through various times: a time to be born a time to die, to weep and to laugh, to keep silent and to speak. Some of these times we do not like to think about, but we know that in life we will experience all of it, including the winter months as a part of the seasons.

As the fields need the winter months to heal the land, we too as people may need the winter months for some healing. In the winter we tend to slow down a little, not wanting to go out as often, so it gives us some time for God to "pick rock" in our hearts. Everyone has hidden and unseen rocks that we may call burdens that we carry around with us, and we all know that some stones are very heavy. Some of those stones could be hurtful words that were spoken over one as a child, that hidden stone that no one will love me, worries that we may carry for our children as they grow in this world we live in or how about any bad habits one may pick up along the years of life. If we hold onto these rocks they will continue to cut us if we do not let them emerge and let them be dealt with.

Girlfriends, what stones may be wounding your soul today, just as winter heals the land, Jesus wants to heal us, will we let Him? Think of your heart as a field and Jesus is the farmer, I don't believe that He would leave any stone unturned. Like Solomon wrote, "for everything there is a season" (Eccles. 3:1), including the season for gathering stones, and a time to cast away stones, and a time for gathering stones together. (Eccles. 3:5) There is no rock that is too big for Jesus to turn over, was not His stone rolled away in front of the tomb, He can move your stones away as well. As we are slowed down during these winter months, let's allow Jesus to do some rock picking, so that when spring comes we are ready to meet the new season with freshness.

Let's Pray,

Father God, I praise You today Lord and I lift up Your holy name. Lord there is never any stone that is too hard for You to turn over and roll out of the way. Lord, I lift up each dear soul to You today who needs a little rock picking done in the field of their soul. Lord help them to know that You are a gentle rock picker and that You will remove these rocks in a gentle way, as You remove each one, one at a time, each person will feel the weight that they have been carrying lifted off of them one rock at a time. I thank You Lord for what You are doing in each of our hearts in the mighty name of Jesus as we allow every stone to be overturned and move out of the way, Amen.

Be blessed dear ones, and pass the sweet blessings of Jesus on to others.