Connected living stones

"You also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house." Stones in a wall are not loose. Each one rests on another and carries some of the weight above it. Peter writes to people scattered across five provinces and tells them they are one house, built on Christ, the living stone the world rejected and God chose. Every stone matters to the whole.

In the session, Gilldares said the phrase always reminds her of the live jewels in a story by C.S. Lewis, almost like cells of one organism. "We all affect one another," she said, and we have to be mindful of those right around us "and those farther away from us. We're all connected living stones."

Online, it is easy to treat each other as separate accounts in separate windows. Peter says otherwise. The person whose prayer request you scrolled past last night is a stone in the same wall as you. What you post, how you answer, and whether you show up all press on the stones beside you, near or far. Nobody is a loose stone.

Today, think of one person in your digital community you rarely notice. Pray for them by name, slowly and specifically, and then reach out with a word of encouragement or a simple question about how they are doing. It may take thirty seconds. Living stones hold each other up. The house God is building is held together by small, faithful acts like this one, offered to him.