The rocks that talk back

The rocks would shout

On the road into Jerusalem, some told Jesus to silence the crowds who were praising him. He answered: “Listen—if they were silent, the very rocks would start to shout!” (Luke 19:40, The Voice). His praise will not be silenced. And making him known is entrusted to people first: to his followers, with their own voices, before any stone.

Rocks that think

A microchip is a rock we tricked into thinking: sand, refined into silicon and etched finely enough to compute. People now talk to rocks first. They ask a phone about grief, doubt, a verse or a prayer before they ask a friend or a pastor. And with AI, the rock talks back, about God too.

A cross on a tower

East Germany’s communist government opened Berlin’s television tower on 3 October 1969, a showpiece of the state’s prestige. (Stasi Mediathek) But when the sun strikes its sphere, the reflection forms a cross of light. Berliners called it “the Pope’s revenge”. (Fernsehturm Berlin) The Stasi looked into it as possible sabotage, and found none. (Stasi Mediathek) In 1987 Ronald Reagan told Berliners that the authorities had treated the sphere with paints and chemicals, and yet “the light makes the sign of the cross”. (Reagan, 1987) Nobody built that tower to reflect Christ. The light was never the tower’s; it only had to catch it.

Our part

We do not make the rocks, and the light is not ours. Jesus says, “I am the light of the world” (John 8:12). God “made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Corinthians 4:6). What we do is build on the rocks and with them, and shape how they behave: what they say first, what they leave unsaid, when they step back for a person. Every one of those choices, a prompt, a default, a refusal, a handoff, can turn a facet towards the light. Then the rocks can reflect Christ and lead people into deeper knowledge of God, and on to his people, where they are built up “like living stones” (1 Peter 2:5).

Joy, and a burden

It is a joy to be given this work. It is also a burden, not to be carried lightly. A rock that speaks of God can also mislead, flatter or wound, and it speaks to people when they are most open. “Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). The aim is that people see him: not the rock, and not us.

Workers in God’s field sets out the calling and its weight in full; the deep dives work it out one design decision at a time.