Taken from L.B. Cowman’s “Streams in the Desert,” Zondervan Updated Edition
“I will build you with stones of turquoise,” (Isaiah 54:11).
The stones in the wall said, “We have come from mountains far away—from the sides of rugged cliffs. Fire and water have worked on us for ages but have only produced crevices. Yet human hands like yours have made us into homes where children of your immortal race are born, suffer, rejoice, find rest and shelter, and learn the lessons that our Maker and yours is teaching. But come to the point of being used for this purpose, we have endured much. Dynamite has torn at our very heart, and pickaxes have broken and split us into pieces. Often as we lay disfigured and broken in the quarry, everything seemed to be without design or meaning. But gradually we were cut into blocks, and some of us were chiseled with sharper instruments until we had a fine edge. Now we are complete, are in our proper places, and are of service.”
“You, however, are still in your quarry. You are not complete and because of that, as once was the case with us, there is much you do not understand. But you are destined for a higher building, and someday you will be placed in it by angelic hands, becoming a living stone in a heavenly temple.”
In the still air
the music lies unheard;
In the rough marble
beauty hides unseen;
To make the music
and the beauty needs
The master’s touch,
the sculptor’s chisel keen.
Great Master, touch us
with Your skillful hands;
Let not the music that is in us die!
Great Sculptor,
hew and polish us; nor let,
Hidden and lost,
Your form within us lie!