Covenant News

Lenten Devotional: The Glory in the Grit

CHICAGO, IL (February 25, 2004) - Covenant Communications occasionally posts devotionals from Covenanters. This Ash Wednesday devotional by Steve Elde, pastor of Winnetka Covenant Church in Wilmette, Illinois, appeared in the February issue of "The Covenant Companion."

When we vacation in Washington State, one of our favorite destinations is a Pacific Ocean beach in Olympic National Park. It's a rugged beach, covered more with rocks than with sand. Just offshore are huge sea stacks, defiant islands of stone with a few brave trees and scrub bushes at the top, clinging to life against the odds. The waves crash onto shore, dragging rocks back into the depths. The pebbles rattle against each other as they resist the waves. We walk the beaches, picking up rocks and shells. The rocks, washed clean in the ocean water, glisten in the bright sunlight.

Once in a while you catch a glimpse of a stone of remarkable beauty. These we pick up and put into our pockets. At day's end, we have collected enough ballast to brave even the strongest winds as we walk along the ocean shore.

When I get back home and empty my pockets, I wonder why I saved or even picked up many of these stones. Gone is the beauty I first saw in them as they sparkled in the sunlight, still wet from the ocean. There is no shine left, the colors and patterns have faded. They are unremarkable, no more interesting than rocks you might find along the road.

My brother-in-law is also a rock collector, though he is more discriminating in the rocks he selects for his pockets. He collects rocks so that he can polish them. He polishes the stones in his basement in a tumbler filled with abrasive grit. The stones are turned in this grit for weeks, the abrasives grinding away all the roughness, the dullness, the imperfection. When it is time, he reaches into the grit and pulls out the stone, now revealed in all its glory. What was momentary is now lasting. It is there for all to see.

Reflecting on this as we approach another season of Lent, I am struck by how much we are like those stones. It is sometimes hard to see the image of God in us and in others. It is fleeting. We catch a glimpse, like the beauty of rocks glistening at the water's edge. But much of life is dull, routine, and ordinary. Some of it is painful and disappointing. The grit is where we live. But it is through the grit that the rough edges are worn smooth, the dullness rubbed away, and the glory is revealed.

"Beloved," John says, "now we are the children of God--what we will be has not yet been revealed. But we know that when he comes we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." This is a word of hope for all of us.

As a Lenten discipline, I invite you to think about the grit in your life. And if you can find it within yourself, give thanks for these things, remembering that it is within the grit that the glory lies hidden. Now we may see only a glimpse, then we will see fully.

Printable version of this page.