I came across the pile of rocks first. I was on a walk in my beloved River Valley on a brisk and grey day. Deciding to follow a new path, I ended up in a hidden field that stretched on and on. I stopped when I came to the heap of boulders. Attention-grabbing mostly because of the context in which they were piled - the unnatural in the natural. A clear sign that someone had entered the scene before me and left a mark. A mark that gave me pause. The rocks didn’t speak to me at that moment, but I did photograph them.

A few minutes later, I was stopped in my tracks again. This time it was a pylon. What was a brightly orange and battered pylon doing, sitting neatly amongst fields of blonde grass? Why in the landscape of muted and quiet hues of grey, wheat and umber was a fluorescent man-made pyramid perched on a trail waiting for me? This weird, solitary cone mezuzaed (Yes, I made up this word. I liked it more than “reminded”. A mezuzah is a piece of parchment inscribed with biblical passages and fixed to the doorpost of the rooms of a Jewish house to remind them of God’s promises) me in a most peculiar way of God’s plan. Immediately I was launched into praise to God.

You see, I am in the middle of reading a book called Think Orange. It’s all about the impact that the family (red) and the church (yellow) can have on the next generation if they work together (orange). The last couple of chapters have been linking key concepts to various orange objects to make a point. One of those objects happened to be a pylon. The chapter spoke to the importance of integrated strategy. If every ministry in the church is doing their own thing and putting down their pylon wherever they wish, it's not going to make a whole lot of impact. But with an integrated strategy, when pylons are arranged with an intentional order- they have the potential to make a huge impact.

I love that such an ordinary object will now forever trigger in me the importance of working as a team. I thanked God for the incredible people that he has brought to Crosspoint that I get to serve and grow and learn and dream with. I am so grateful that he doesn't call us to fulfill His mission alone.

Somewhere else along the course of my walk, I also had the thought that perhaps one of the reasons that God has brought me to Edmonton to be a part of Crosspoint is so that I will have a church that I can be sent from. But I didn't think too much more about this at the time.

It wasn't until the next morning that the pile and the pylon spoke. That God spoke. I was thanking God for being the Lord of music and dance, the former of man and woman, the shaper of every beautiful thing when I found myself thanking Him for the pylon that He had placed in my path the other day. And that's when things exploded.

He showed me how beneficial it was for a group of people to work together. There is more strength, power, accountability, protection. One person doesn't run away with the glory. Instead, it is funnelled to God where it rightly belongs. He is able to absorb and handle all the praise and honour because it is rightfully His.

Then He brought the pile of rocks to the forefront of my mind and the words “living stones”. I looked it up in the concordance of my Bible and was lead to a glorious passage in 1 Peter 2: 4-6, 9:

4 As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— 5 you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house[a] to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6 For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
will never be put to shame.”

9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

I was struck by the fact that we are called stones just as Christ is the cornerstone! Not to say that we are God, but we are co-labourers with him. We are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession. He also points out that we are foreigners and aliens in this world a few verses later. Just as the pile of rocks stood out in the flat field, so we too are not supposed to blend in with our surroundings. God has chosen to use the church, His people, as the agent for change in the world. It blows my mind. It makes me feel humbled and honoured, small and privileged all at the same time.

Then the pylon flickered into focus in my mind once more. I remembered how comical it looked sitting alone in the field. The pile of rocks were unnatural too, but they were meant to be together – they had a purpose. The pylon on the other hand was not meant to be alone. It was both out of context and without purpose. The pylon was cracked and broken at the tip and its bright orange hue was fading. It made me think – this is what happens to us when we try to engage in battle alone- it’s foolish and it leads to destruction.

As I started reading at the beginning of 1 Peter 1 to get the context of the passage that had spoken to me so clearly, I came across another verse that gave words to a picture that God had already shown me:

24 For, “All people are like grass,
and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”

Yes! I had just spent over an hour walking through this withered grass. And so the promise of the word of the Lord enduring forever was amplified in my heart.

I also know:

I am not meant to be a lone pylon.

I am a living stone.

I am being built in with other Crosspoint stones, with Christ as our cornerstone so people in Edmonton can find their way back to God.

The building isn’t done.

I don’t know the specifics now that the pile and the pylon have spoken. That God has spoken. But I feel nonetheless that God has illuminated my path anew once more. Filled me up with hope and courage to keep moving forward. Increased my love for His church. Stoked my joy at being part of this epic unfolding of His story.

He used a pile and pylon.

He would.