Devotion for Monday, March 9, the second week of Lent
Psalm 118:22–24 | The stone which the builders rejected...
It is extraordinary that right after the call for righteousness of v. 20 come the reference to grace, which Christians deduce as a reference to Christ: “The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.” We travel in two verses from the demand of God to the paradox of the cross.
Have you observed this in your life? The experience that was for you the worst things that could happen, turned out to be the things that most valuably changed your life. You failed a test and had to move in a new direction, which turned out to be the direction. Your love was spurned by one person, which turned you in the direction of another, the one.
There is that country and western song of the man who takes his wife back to his high school reunion. Needless to say, he runs into his old flame, the one whom he’d prayed to have forever and ever. But when the man looks at his wife, he says to himself, “Thank God for unanswered prayers.”
It is uncannily true in life, and also with nations and in history, and in the broadest possible sweep, that the rejected thing can become the occasion of grace. Your thorn can become your rose.
“Gaze we on those glorious scars.”