My family spent a September week in the woods of Colorado. While hiking a trail around our cabin we came to a lovely river, water clear as glass, flowing over a bed of stones. We began to show the little ones among us how to toss the rocks and observe the splash. Of course, this evolved into a friendly competition of skipping rocks between my husband and brother-in-law.

I’ve walked many a shore watching my husband skip rocks. So much so that I’ve become his official rock finder. I don’t have a strong arm like my husband but I can find the best skipping rocks, flat and smooth.

As we walked the bank outside our cabin, I laid eyes on it, a beautiful white stone, flat, wide, and smooth. It was perfect. I reached down, pulled it from the cold earth and placed it in my husband’s ready hand. He immediately released it across the water.The stone skipped gracefully several times before finally splitting into the water’s surface and sinking lightening hard to the bottom. We collectively awed with approval. A perfect throw.

“Nettie’s rock and Tucker’s arm,” my brother-in-law cheered.

In that moment the Lord spoke to my heart, “your rock, My arm.”

Immediately, I recalled Peter professing the identity of Christ. Peter says, “you are the Christ”…to which Jesus responds, “flesh and blood didn’t reveal this to you, but the Spirit of God, and upon this rock (this revelation) I will build my church.”

As I am faithful to gather the word of God to my heart (a treasure hunt on the Lord’s shore) whether I feel like it or not, whether I have perfect understanding of it or not, He will, by His Spirit, bring revelation. And with His strong arm, He will propel me into growth by way of the rock of His revelation.

We so often over-complicate transformation by believing our weak effort alone will be enough, failing to understand it is “not by might, nor by power, but by [His] Spirit” that transformation occurs. I only need to provide the rock. By reading His word in the simple faith that it will not return void of power, you place a smooth stone in His hand, and it will accomplish in you and around you what it is released to do.