Time for the Stones to Cry

Alma is one of the most humble Haitian women I've ever met.  Her faith is admirable and encouraging to me. She lives up on the mountain with her husband who is a pastor.   This morning they woke very early.  It was raining hard, and most Haitians high up in those hills would see the water running in the ravines and shut up the windows, calling it a day.  They'd hunker down for some coffee or tea, and maybe take an extra nap to wait for the storm to pass.  Not Alma.  

She was determined to walk down that mountain this morning with her husband, through the rain, through the mud.  She was fixed on catching a tap-tap to my house and she didn't care about the weather.  She'd had a vision and it stirred her.   Along with her husband another pastor arrived on my doorstep. We began our day in prayer, reading God's word, and in serious discussion.   

All she would say is that she'd had a revelation.  She didn't give any details other than she knew we were supposed to call upon the Cherubim for protection, because this was serious.  If you don't know, Cherubim are like the Seal Team 6/Secret Service/NSA of angels.  You don't mess with them.  They have 4 faces, the body of a lion and the wings of an eagle.  They are designed for protection, and the mere sight of them suggest they will eat you for lunch.  

Every time she'd look at me her eyes would fill with sadness and she'd look away.  I have a feeling she's seen more, but she was just keeping her chin up.   We walked to every corner of our house, outside the walls and inside.   She would sing a particular song,  I Surrender All, and then her husband would read a Psalm.  Then they'd commence with prayer, calling upon the Cherubim, and every time, at every corner, she'd recite a certain verse in Scripture.  

'If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and He will rescue us from your hand, O king.'  

From Daniel 3, the story of 3 men about to be burned alive for their faith. 

I don't know why, but I felt amazing peace.  

I have prayer warriors calling down the special forces, and I am blissfully ignorant in the Lord.  There's something wonderful about that.  I just trust Him, and I'm OK that He's got whatever under control! 

My prayers for my enemies have been sculpted over the past year, and I find I can pray this in absolute peace and comfort...

God, confuse them, confound them, frustrate them, turn them on each other, break their teeth if You need to, and only kill them if You have to.  Otherwise, turn them inside out and upside down.  Look upon them, lying there helpless in their blood, and then tell them to Live!  And when they begin to live for You, I pray they turn all of Haiti inside out and upside down, that they reach 100 times more souls than I ever will, like fingers stretching into these hills.  

In Scripture there's this moment when Jesus is coming into Jerusalem and the people are celebrating and shouting, whooping and hollering.  The scene is so jubilant and full of bliss that the passage is even titled The Triumphal Entry.

The Pharisees and the huffy-puffy's are all walking around grumpy and dumpy,  in a tizzy because of this unscheduled joy.   

Jesus knows what's coming.  He knows in the blink of an eye there will be a heavy cross thrown across His back, that shouts of joy will turn to shouts of mockery as He stumbles before them on the way to His own crime scene.    But that time was not yet upon Him.   The stuck-ups scolded Jesus and told Him to quiet down all the unruly's, and then Jesus opened his mouth to deliver words that have forever moved me.  

“I tell you,” He replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.”

Even the stones...will cry.

As my brothers and sisters cried out for the Cherubim today, my head was bowed in silence, and my one good eye opened.  I saw stones.  Thousands of them.  I picked one up and felt it's smoothness from the millennia it's been here before me...

I remember that I am but dust.  A breath.  A puff of smoke.  A wild flower in the field.   

Who am I, that He's even mindful of me, and yet He is?  He is so mindful of me that He longs to rescue me; so in charge of my security that He sends in the troops to then pray in the big dogs, and if through all that He deems it necessary to bring me home, then it will simply be time for the stones to cry.   

For now, I hear birds singing in the trees above my my house.  Hundreds of them.  I shared scripture with my neighbor this morning about those birds (Psalm 104) and his eyes were opened,  maybe for the first time.  Through his smile today, his gentle words translated to me perfectly that he was touched by the wonder of the Living God, and how much is truly in His hands...

My mission is clear.   Give His word.  

His Word is Freedom, what the Kreyol translates to Liberty.

God has the rest.