The Stone Rejected

Oct 15

“The stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone.”

I was recently visiting an Oblate friend who has a most unusual gift; he sees value where others see refuse. In kinder words, he finds treasure in what others might call trash.

When I arrived, he greeted me with a grin and said, “You need to trash pick more. There are treasures out there!” I smiled, though I must admit that rummaging through garbage has never struck me as the best place to find beauty.

Then he said something that made me pause: “I found something for you.” I confess, I grew nervous. There’s nothing quite like hearing that someone has been digging through trash and thought of you! He led me to his garden and presented me with the most striking bronze lantern, sturdy, elegant, and exactly suited to my taste. I was speechless. What had been discarded by another had become a source of light for me.

How easily I write things off: objects, ideas, and, most painfully, people. “To the curb,” I say, perhaps not aloud but in the quiet dismissals of my heart. There are moments when I realize I have silently done this to others: overlooked, judged, or disregarded.

St. Francis de Sales often reminded his companions to find “God’s goodness in all things.” He would urge us to notice, to look again where our first glance turned away. Even what seems rough or unworthy may hold a hidden grace.

So perhaps the invitation is simply this: notice. 

Notice when your heart begins to reject. 
Notice when your mind casts someone aside. 
Then, think of the lantern. Think of the light.

For the stone we would have thrown away, the life we might have dismissed, may yet become the cornerstone of something beautiful.

May God be praised!