Gift Wrapped

Years ago, before there was Joy in her world, Blue-eyed Becca went to the Holy Land and brought me home two requests: a stone from Shepherds' Field and an olive pit from Gethsemane. (Five years later I learned she also bought me a Bethlehem blanket to wrap my babe in for a church blessing…I’m so glad she believed in my future when I was iffy. Those blue eyes have foresight!) I glued the souvenirs on linen in a shadow box and pinned strips of paper containing lyrics from “O Holy Night” under each tidbit. Beneath the stone: IN ALL OUR TRIALS BORN TO BE OUR FRIEND. Beneath the pit: HE KNOWS OUR NEED, TO OUR WEAKNESS IS NO STRANGER. Ever my favorite lines they bookend the singular perfect life; a life filled with purpose and prophecy from day one where shepherds were abiding in the field through the fulfillment of the atonement to this end was I born. A stone and a pit beloved in my home.

I love this time of year because WONDERFUL, COUNSELLOR, THE MIGHTY GOD, THE EVERLASTING FATHER, THE PRINCE OF PEACE bounces repeatedly in my brain's elevator music. WONDERFUL not as a platitude for GREAT but WONDERFUL because Isaiah was predicting He would cause people to be FULL OF WONDER. As in oh it is wonderful that he should care for me enough to die for me/oh it is wonderful, wonderful to me!

There are scores of names for Jesus Christ. Once my aunt wrote as many names as she could find on bias tape, wrapped the tape around an antique spool, and pinned it with a pearly-head pin to stay put. It’s one of my favorite gifts to date.

ONLY BEGOTTEN – JEHOVAH – EMMANUEL - LAMB OF GOD – SON OF THE HIGHEST – ALPHA AND OMEGA – LIGHT AND LIFE OF THE WORLD – ADVOCATE WITH THE FATHER – GOOD SHEPHERD – MESSIAH – KING OF ZION – ROCK OF HEAVEN – BREAD OF LIFE – THE TRUE VINE – THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE – THE BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR – REDEEMER – THE GREAT I AM – MEDIATOR – SAVIOR – CHIEF CORNERSTONE – A STAR OUT OF JACOB – THE LIVING WATER – LORD OF HOSTS – A SURE FOUNDATION – THE END AND THE BEGINNING

But one was missing. The best one. The one that doesn’t even show up on lds.org’s search engine despite being typed perfectly.

Sheena Parker used to teach Sunday School and it became a joke how she consistently involved a rock as either an object lesson or as table décor. One week I heard her describe the Savior by a name I had never, ever heard in all my life of attending three hours of church every Sunday and in decades of scripture study. (I obviously glossed over Isaiah in my personal reading because the best name sits quite openly on the page. I think a lot of stuff is hidden in Isaiah. My Grandpa Kerby used to tell a joke about the missionary who was shot at close range on the street but survived because the bullet went through his Bible…and nothing gets through Isaiah. [ba dum dum] I must be getting old because all the beautiful words I’m finding lately are in Isaiah. No wonder Nephi loved him! Shakespeare has nothing on Isaiah, either.)

Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. -Isaiah 28:16

A TRIED STONE.

It’s easy for me to imagine the Savior as the chief cornerstone; strong, solid, perfectly cut, able to have everything stacked on top of him because he already bore infinite burdens.

It’s simple to envision the Savior as the sure foundation because we sing “How Firm a Foundation” and quote Helaman 5:12 a lot. We want to be wise men who built on the rock, not foolish men sinking in sand. The Savior is sure because He is forever level and never wobbly.

Of course he is the Rock of Ages and the Rock of Heaven; his right hand stretched forth the heavens and his ample, outstretched arms have never ceased reaching out to any of us whether they belonged to Jehovah, the son of Joseph the carpenter, or the resurrected Lord.

But a tried stone. I just never saw it coming. Never thought of the words. How do you try a stone? You try to break it. You try to find a weakness, a crack, a fissure. You hit it with external force so great it shatters. Oh, my sweet brother and Savior knelt in the garden as a perfectly chiseled masterpiece and never fractured. He took it all for all of us; enormity times infinity. It is such an apt and simple description of the greatest one.

We have trials and issues as varied as the names of the Savior. If your trial is extra messy, sticky, hurtful, or heavy do not be deceived you are in it alone. I believe The Tried Stone is asking you to TRY HIM for relief. For I am thy God and will still give thee aid. Only Christ can offer it; He alone will deliver it. Succor always arrives in a pretty package.

Gift wrap from the same aunt who made the spool. This pattern has it all…the new star, balmy palm trees, sheep who got a sight from the angels, harps and horns and glad tidings. Bells ringing to announce the King of Kings closeby in a lowly stable, camel transportation for wise men, and tall things that look like Eiffel Towers but really are sideways angel trumpets. I don’t save everything but I am a total paper hoarder.

"Gethsemane" is Hebrew for "olive press". I’ll always think of it as a stone press, too. Or maybe the olive was needfully pressed but the pit remained. The resilient, withstanding, industrial strength pit forever able to take us out of our deep pits. “There is no pit so deep that He is not deeper still.” –Corrie ten Boom 

A stone and a pit. See what I mean about WONDERFUL?