By Gina Caswell Kelly
When He came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
“Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples!”
“I tell you,” He replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” Luke 19:37-40
We come to the last week of Jesus Christ’s life as a man on earth. His triumphant entry into Jerusalem. The crowds are shouting and causing a disturbance in the eyes of the Pharisees. (Pharisees were a leading Jewish sect that did not believe Jesus was the Messiah.) The crowds were shouting and praising Jesus as He rode in on a donkey. Palm branches were being laid down before Him. (This is where we get Palm Sunday.)
So the Pharisees want Jesus to quiet the crowd. I absolutely love what Jesus says. “If the people keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” That is so beautiful! To know that even if man stops praising God, His other creations will continue the shout! I was driving up the west coast a few years back. The waters crashing on the rocks, and the rocks just looking so majestic. My first thought was that it just seemed as though the rocks were shouting praise to their Creator. In the area in which we live, we get such beautiful sunrises and sunsets. That is the creation shouting the Name of Jesus before our very eyes.
As an old farm girl, I can see nature shouting the Name of Jesus in the running and bouncing around of a new baby calf. I see nature calling out the Name of our Lord in the bursting open of the cotton bolls. I hear the shouts in the thunder in the sky. Even the clouds praising the Name of their creator.
As I am writing this, the wind is howling and the skies are filled with dirt. But even in this that we call a mess, the wind is shouting its praise to the very One who came to die for our sins. I know we like to gripe and complain about the wind. But it is a fact of life in our area. What if we instead, began to listen to the wind as the shouts of praise for a good and glorious God who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him to cover the sins of a world that would constantly reject Him. Oh my goodness! Now it is me that is shouting the Name of our Lord!
Listen and look for the sounds and sights of nature shouting the Name of Jesus! It will make a difference!
