Stable, Secure And Supportive – That Is God Our Rock, Forever Series

STABLE, SECURE AND SUPPORTIVE – THAT IS GOD OUR ROCK, FOREVER

DID YOU HAVE A ROCK?

Years ago there used to be this fad – pet rocks. How many remember this craze? A quote from “Nostalgia Central” might jog your memories (if you are of my generation!)

[[“The Pet Rock was probably the biggest toy fluke of the 20th century. Can you imagine people today buying a rock decorated with animal features?

Created in 1975 by an advertising executive called Gary Dahl – he brought the small smooth rocks from a Mexican beach and packaged them in a tiny box with air holes. The true genius was inside; a rock nestled on a bed of straw with a tiny book explaining how to train, play with and even house-train your pet rock.

Though initially just plain rocks, they were eventually sold with faces painted on, often sold as a group of pebbles, symbolising a small family or a ‘rock’ band. By Christmas 1975, two and a half tons of rocks had been sold and 75% of all daily newspapers in America had run Pet Rock stories.

A million rocks sold for $3.95 each in just a few months, and Gary Dahl – who decided from the beginning to make at least one dollar from every rock – had become an instant millionaire.

Copycat rocks flooded the market, including one cleverly marketed as “the Original Pet Rock,” and dozens of quick-buck entrepreneurs joined the action selling such ancillary fun as “Pet Rock Obedience Lessons” and “Pet Rock Burial-at-Sea Services.”]]

And people have rocks. They like to decorate their yards with a few rocks; some have them for letterbox supports and garden features. Some have them as borders for gardens or decorative arrangements around swimming pools. People and organisations mark places out as memorials or plaques using rocks; in my country, mainly of granite or basalt with a plaque attached. The rock’s smaller cousin, “stones” form driveways, implants in and against walls and arrangements at the bottom of fish tanks.

These rocks are as big as the individual, or smaller, moved by hand or machine.

You still hear the expression, “You are my rock,” which means “You are my support.”

USEFULNESS

When a storm comes and you are caught unawares and you are in the open with no trees of any height but there are rocks, what do you look for? You try to find shelter on the lee side of the rock or rocky embrace where you get as close to the rock as you can, or dare I say, a cave in a rock or a good overhang. On one occasion I was in a tropical rainforest with a friend photographing fungi when we were caught in a downpour. This was granite country with very large boulders and one of them cut under, with enough room for us to shelter free from the rain. That was a relief.

What use would be a rock lower than you?

If you thought about the usefulness of rocks, then in what way could they be useful? I mean large rocks? How are these large rocks considered? What is it that draws people to the rock idea? Because a rock can be much larger than we are, people can be captivated by them. They can provide:

Shelter

Security

Stability

Shade

Safety/Security if hiding

Support in isolation

Solace as in comfort and retreat

Summary ? Shelter from the elements; security to stay in place; stability when you don’t want something moving; safety in a gale; a feeling of support because of the size; and a solace to be among something bigger.

HYMNS THAT TAKE UP THE ROCK THEME

A number of hymns have been written with the Rock theme, most of then centred on Christ the Rock. These have come from personal experience and from the truth of Scripture. Here are a few of many:

Rock of Ages

Let me Fly to the Rock

The Rock That is Higher Than I

Beneath the Cross of Jesus

My Hope is Built on Nothing Less (On Christ the solid Rock I stand)

I did find one unfamiliar to me - Translated from the Danish. Author: N. F. S. Grundtvig (1854)

“Built on the Rock the Church shall stand

even when steeples are falling.

Crumbled have spires in ev'ry land;

bells still are chiming and calling,

calling the young and old to rest,

but above all the soul distressed,

longing for rest everlasting.”

These hymn writers are expressing the biblical basis for the Rock. Sometimes the rock may be a picture but mostly in Scripture the Rock is Jehovah or the Lord Jesus Christ. There are so many of these throughout Scripture that we could gather dozens but I wanted to choose just a few of the hymns about the Rock.