After our family held a riverside memorial service for my father, we each selected a stone to help us remember him. His life had been a checkerboard of wins and losses, but we knew his heart was for us. My fingers traced my stone’s smooth surface and helped me hold him close.

In Luke 19, Jesus made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, while the crowds waved palm branches, shouted Hosannas, and cheered, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (v. 38). In the Pharisees’ disdain of what they perceived to a blasphemous claim of messiahship, they ordered Jesus to tell the disciples to be quiet. Jesus replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (v. 40).

 The stones do cry out, in many ways. God used stones throughout the story of His love for us. Two rough-hewn stones carried ten chiseled commandments to tell us how to live (Exodus 34:1–2). Stones of remembrance piled by the Jordan River reminded generations of God’s provision and faithfulness (Joshua 4:8–9). The one rolled into place to contain Jesus’ body is the same one rolled away to show He had risen (Matthew 27:59–66; Luke 24:2). We “hear” this stone as it reminds us of Jesus’ words, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).

Listen to the stones and lift your own voice along with them in praise to our loving Father.