Maundy Thursday: Five Smooth Stones

“Then he took his staff in his hand and chose five smooth stones from the brook and put them in his shepherd’s pouch. His sling was in his hand, and he approached the Philistine.”

This Lesson is five of eight compiled for Holy Week 2019. Eight individual stories where God used inanimate rocks or stones to further His Kingdom for His Glory. Inanimate Objects. Rocks, water, bread. All things which are dead or at least NOT living. All things that without action upon it by something living remain sedentary, unchanged, lifeless. Enter Jesus.

– I Samuel 17:40

Most of us are familiar with the story of David and Goliath. There is something enchanting about the story of the small boy defeating the mighty giant.

Before facing Goliath, David was offered King Saul’s armor and weapons. Yet David rejected these things because they did not suit him. Instead he went into battle with what he was good at. David was a “slinger.

Slingers in ancient times were devastating. Their precision and skill made them indispensable in combat because they could kill approaching armies from a distance. Up against a giant warrior like Goliath, the odds of David winning seemed insurmountable from the beginning. And yet, David, and his weapons of choice, made him formidable. When he plucked five smooth stones from the river there were probably a lot of laughs from the crowd. But David took something he was good at and combined it with his extraordinary faith in His mighty God. He essentially took five miniscule stones and placed them and his own fate into the hands of God and expected Him to provide the victory.

Thousands of years later a little boy took a few small objects of his own and put them into Jesus’s hands. He gave Christ his five loaves and two fish. It was all that he had. But he had the faith that Jesus could do more with it. He believed Christ could take those meager things and provide the gigantic miracle needed to feed thousands of people (John 6:1-14).

These stories should encourage us. The Lord has placed a deposit in us. There are things we are good at or things that we have that we can faithfully place in His hands for Him to use in powerful ways. Sometimes our talents, resources, or faith itself feels so small, but there is exponential growth to what God can do when we give those things to Him for His purposes and glory.