In response to my conversation with Brian a few weeks ago he and I decided to plan a rock-dropping ceremony for him. I had never planned one of these things before and wasn't quite sure what to do, but thought that it didn't need to be intricate or long or overly planned - just meaningful and personal and full of gratitude.
I've been guest teaching at a church in Bethlehem on Sunday nights. This past Sunday I invited Brian to come along with me. He said he'd join me, but he also suggested that we go up a bit early and find a place in Bethlehem for his ceremony.
We headed up early and found a spot along the Lehigh River. It was a sunny and crisp late fall afternoon - just beautiful. We walked across some train trusses on a bridge and Brian stopped, looked over the edge of the bridge and held out his arm. After a few moments of silence, he dropped it, as we watched it fall and then...plop - the sound of forgiveness!
Brian then prayed and thanked God that He had forgiven him of his sins and given him so much hope and peace. He asked for strength to be able to do all he could to follow Jesus accurately with his life. It took everything in me to keep from crying like a baby!
I then prayed for Brian and thanked God for his friendship and that God would use him to bring his friends to know Jesus, just like he had and that Bria could lead and facilitate some rock-dropping-esque ceremonies in the future with those friends.
After we prayed we walked over to the banks of the river and I read Brian a passage that I had been praying for him since hearing his news of becoming a follower of Jesus.
"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus...
And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." - Philippians 1:3-6, 9-11
Then we took communion together on the banks of the river - the heel of a slice of white bread and grape juice, which we drank out of one of Carter's kiddy cups! - and talked about Jesus being our living water and what it meant to be a follower of Jesus.
I can't think of a better way to spend a fall afternoon than dropping rocks and taking communion with a new believer.
Here's a picture of Brian shortly after he dropped his rock!
Beautiful! Just beautiful...how moving. It reminds me of Bebo Norman's song, "I know Now".
Posted by: Melb | October 22, 2008 at 09:21 AM