Photo and Commentary ©2024 by Shelley Schurch
Sunday, July 21, 2024
As we walked down the hall of a lovely retirement facility that was new to us, searching for the right apartment number, we noticed that outside each resident’s door was a small ledge, or shelf. Upon closer inspection we saw that each shelf held items that told us something about that occupant’s interests and personality. A silent “show and tell.”
After visiting the new friend we’d come to meet, we strolled back down the hall, able to look more leisurely at these displays. We could tell that residents enjoyed a wide variety of interests, including quilting, art, aircraft, orgami, gardening, and family.
One display made me wish I could meet its owner. Its most prominent feature was the stone you see in the photo above, which declares, “Nothing is written in stone.” I think this resident has a sense of humor!
I whipped out my phone to take the photo, and my Biblical languages scholar husband said, “Don’t forget the other stone!” I hadn’t paid any attention to the second stone, since I was busy chuckling at the first one, and I am not proficient in Hebrew. I obediently took the second stone’s photo while my husband explained that the word inscribed on it was, “Shalom.”
Since I regretfully decided it wouldn’t be appropriate for me to ring this resident’s doorbell and ask what they meant by the pairing of these two stones, I don’t know that. Instead, I have the fun of mulling them over to myself (and to you!).
My Bible study group has been working our way through the books of Genesis and Exodus, and we are now in the midst of Exodus 20, where God speaks His Ten Commandments to the thousands of Israelites he has recently liberated from 400 plus years of Egyptian slavery. He not only speaks; He then carves these commandments onto stone tablets – twice, because the first set was broken, both literally and in spirit.
Exodus 31:18 describes them as, “the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.” How much more could God have emphasized their importance?
I like to remember commandment comments made by journalist Ted Koppel in a 1987 Duke University commencement address:
“What Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai were not the Ten Suggestions, they are Commandments. Are, not were . . . The sheer brilliance of the Ten Commandments is that they codify, in a handful of words, acceptable human behavior. Not just for then or now but for all time.”
Written in stone, for all time.
Yet that was not enough. More than stone-writing was needed:
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. (Jeremiah 31:33 NKJV)
Our minds and hearts – that’s where God wants to write His commandments and covenant.
And when we invite Him to do that, we will experience what’s written on our second stone, shalom.
I’ve always thought of shalom as peace, a salutation wishing someone well. In recent years I’ve learned that the word goes deeper than that. Shalom means more than an absence of war or conflict.
“In the Bible, the word shalom is most commonly used to refer to a state of affairs, one of well-being, tranquility, prosperity, and security, circumstances unblemished by any sort of defect. Shalom is a blessing, a manifestation of divine grace.” *
I’m not sure what I would include if I put together a display outside my front door, on a small shelf that held my interests and gave a peek into my personality.
I’m glad the person behind this door gives us these two stones; they make me smile and make me ponder.
As we head out into this brand-new week, I wish you Shalom!
