Scattering Stones

Ecclesiastes 3:5 -- "a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,"

Penney Mansion,  April 11, 1940 by Jack Spottswood

Way out in Penny Farms, Florida there was a beautiful, southern plantation style house that took my breath away every time I was able to ride by and gawk. As the years flew by, I watched what once was a a beautiful home for the founder of the JC Penney department store - as it sagged, became slowly eaten by Virginia Creeper and Kudzu, and finally crumble to a state that was so far beyond repair it was torn down. I remember feeling so sad when I'd learned that the once majestic and historical house was gone. I'll never forget the first time I saw it. I'll never forget the pile of "scattered stones" it became.



When God's temple was destroyed as reported in Lamentations chapter 4, we are told that "the holy stones were scattered." This is a good way to describe the destruction of the wonderful temple and all that it represented - but it's also a great way to describe what happened to God's people when their HQ was demolished.  Israel hasn't been the same since, and according to Jewish Scholars, the chosen people of God are the scattered stones mentioned in Ecclesiastes. They might, indeed, be scattered now, but there will be a time when God gathers them up again and returns them to their rightful and majestic splendor.

Gazing at the pile of rubble that was once the grand Penney mansion, it's so hard for me to imagine the bricks and stone, wood and shingles all being gathered again and returned to the beautiful piece of architecture the mansion was so many years ago. But that's exactly what  God will do - maybe not to the Penney mansion, but certainly to His people.

Adopted people through the blood of Jesus Christ, we will be gathered when the time is right. We will no longer feel like scattered stones in a pile of tired, struggling, aching rubble. We will be exactly where we are meant to be - next to Jesus, praising God. Every brick, every scattered stone will be gathered up in the arms of Jesus.

That sounds wonderful to me!