Skimming stones
Recently I took the family out for a walk at Orlock Point, it was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon. We took a flask of tea and some Creme Eggs and together we enjoyed the natural beauty of God’s creation. Part of that enjoyment was the simple pleasure of skimming stones across the still waters of the sea. I struggled to get more than three hops from any of the perfect skimmers that were in abundance on the beach, until one of my boys said, “You need to get lower Daddy.” He was right. It took some more effort to bend the knees and get right down to the level of the water; but the results were splendid. Three hops turned into 8, 9, 10 and even more. It was a simple thing, but a beautiful thing.
My boys words got me to thinking, “You need to get lower Daddy.” The benefits of “getting lower” in the Scriptures are manifest. It’s only when we get lower that we begin to see God’s beautiful purpose for our lives here on earth. Perhaps too often we think about standing tall, or keeping our ground and almost inevitably we fall foul to pride. We often end up disappointed because we expect things to go our way and perhaps, because we think that we deserve things to go our way.
But that sort of disappointment is anything but beautiful. Like skimming a perfect stone across the water with all one’s might thinking, surely this will be a 10, we’re disappointed with a 3. If only we’d get lower.
Humility is God’s design for our lives as His people. Why did God lead His people in the wilderness for 40 years? He tells us in Deuteronomy 8:2-3,
“And you shall remember that the LORD your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the LORD.”
Like God’s ancient people we are prone to complain about the conditions of our wilderness journey. Covid and lockdown, sickness and pain, disappointments and discouragements: why does God make it so difficult? To humble us and to test us. To show us a better way to live, a more beautiful way, a more abundant way. A way where we take our eyes off our own inconveniences and instead fix our gaze on our Lord and Saviour. The lower we are, the more of His beauty we will see.
David says in Psalm 25:9 “The humble He guides in justice, and the humble He teaches His way.” To be guided in justice and taught His way are beautiful things, but these are the lot of the one who is humble. Jesus Himself calls us to His way of humility in Matthew 11:28-29 “Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”
“This way of Christ is, in the first place, humility; in the second place, humility; in the third place, humility.”
Don’t you want that rest? Doesn’t it sound like such a beautiful thing? Such beauty is found in being yoked to Christ in His gentleness and lowliness of heart. Indeed His humility is the lowness that we should be striving for. He came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many. Paul says in Philippians 2:5-8, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
The New Testament is filled with this instruction, for example Paul says in Philippians 2:3, “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself.” Our church community is meant to have this beauty - it is not just for the eyes of those on the inside, but also as a powerful witness to those who are still on the outside.
But like the skimming of stones, this requires that we get lower, we need to bend our knees. Let us humbly then bow before our Master and acknowledge that without Him we can do nothing, and without His love, we are nothing. He must increase, but I must decrease. As Augustine said, “this way of Christ is, in the first place, humility; in the second place, humility; in the third place, humility.” The lower we get, the more beauty we will see.
